It is possible to grow from seed. I don't know about the validity of any varieties of seeds, tho. I bought the Spanish onions from the seed stand once and started them. I made it until spring when I had the entire back yard plowed including the onions. They are more resilient and tougher than even Dixondale as I had many of them spring up out of the ground in various places. Of course, I didn't have any of them grow to maturity. I look forward to trying this again.

It's a lot of trouble to grow from seed. Have the seeds sprouted by around the Fall equinox, that's September 22 this year. Pull them up sometime around November when they are no more than pencil-sized necks, but before it gets too cold for them, whichever is first. Let them go dormant and, then, plant in late winter as you would Dixondales.

They really need to be growing by late September so they'll be a good size before you pull for dormancy. I've only done this once and with that one variety.

bon

I agree with Bon and will go further by saying that I don't think it is a productive use of my time and energy to try to grow large bulbing onions from seed. Autumn and winter are filled with all kinds of other non-gardening activities that fill up my days and keep me busy. I don't even want to think about having to grow onions from seed at a time when I'm busy with other projects.

Of course it can be done. You can do it if you want to. You need to purchase seed if you want to grow hybrids as they wouldn't come true from seed. You need to start every bit as early as Bon said. Guess where the Texas 1015Y got its name? It got its name because it was the "Y" batch of a bunch of trial varieties that were planted in south Texas on October 15th of whatever year they were running those trials. I use that name to remind me how insanely early I'd have to sow onion seeds if I didn't want to buy plants. I'd rather just buy the plants. If ordering direct from Dixondale is a budget buster, try to find local farm stores, nurseries or feed stores that carry Dixondale plants.

If you're willing to invest the time and energy in growing your own onion plants to transplant into your garden at the appropriate time, you're a better person than me, and I salute you.

I bought these onion seeds a couple of years ago. (Sold out this year). They are multiplier/potato onions. I have attempted to grow them, but the chicken's thwarted my efforts last year. I grew from seed first year. Had little bulbs like sets I planted the second year. The chickens dug them up. Read about them here, too.

I want to do this also.

Thanks all. I know I will continue to keep buying sets. Dixondale onions have done so well for me that I can't imagine not using them. I just want to get to a point where I can grow all the stuff I normally grow without having to buy something from somebody else to do it. make sense?

Mark, it makes perfect sense to me. When I consider the logistics of a self-sustaining garden, these things maybe require cooperation among other more mature growers. Corn is among them. Corn really isn't that stable. One must plant a minimum of 200 corn plants to create viable seed. Corn pollen is highly susceptible to cross-pollination. Corn 14 miles away with our wind can cross pollinate with mine. Thus, it would require so many plants to save my own seed using up a tremendous amount of gardening space, plus I'd need another farmer growing just as many of the exact same species where we could swap and cross-pollinate each others' seed frequently to keep this one line strong. I may be overthinking or over simplifying, but I concluded that it is really difficult. If a shtf scenario came along everyone would be growing corn and the end of my own corn species would be an early demise.

Basically, for corn we could keep planting until they modified genetically to the point that the corn is worthless.

Now, consider onions. Onions cross-pollinate with all the wild onions in my back yard. They're biennial and seed the 2nd year so I must protect them for more than a year from cross-pollination as well as getting to cold for those I want to use... and I stopped there. Amy might be onto something. lol

It's worth pursuing alternatives and giving it a try. I do love onions. Corn, not that much.
bon

Don't get me started on carrots! LOL

Wow bon. I didn't know about corn being that difficult. That was one I really wanted to save year to year either. Thanks for the info!

It makes sense to me too, Mike, but sometimes I just don't feel ready to start the next year's garden season while the current gardening season still is ongoing. I blame it on the food preservation which takes months and wears me out. I think if I wasn't canning, fermenting and dehydrating so much of the harvest, I'd have more time to try other things...like growing onions from seed.

Bon, George saves corn seed but we all know that he is head and shoulders above the rest of us ordinary mortals when it comes to saving seed. I don't know the exact number of years he'd been saving and sharing seed, but I believe he and Jerreth were among SSE's very earliest members, so I'm going to guess he's been saving seed for at least 35 years....maybe closer to 40. They still continue saving seed and sharing their knowledge and seeds via Green Country Seed Savers and their new homesteading website.

I just find saving corn seed to be beyond me logistically. Oh, and because we are corn pigs and we want to eat ALL the ears we raise, not leave some (a lot, to maintain genetic diversity as needed) to be used for corn seed. I agree that the widespead commercial use of GMO corns is bound to be ruining saving corn seed over the long haul.

Jay, When you grew your onion seed indoors did you keep them green and growing the whole time, and then just transplant directly to the garden? I'm afraid I'd forget them during the usual holiday madness and find them dead one day and say 'uh oh'. Maybe it is just that they aren't a priority for me so I think I wouldn't stay interested in raising them for the long haul.

I used to save a lot of seed, and had plates of seeds sitting everywhere drying, etc. It is almost impossible to do it with house cats because they knock over the plates of drying seeds, eat the seeds, etc. I love my cats, but they make it hard to have any gardening-related thing going on indoors unless it is in the spare bedroom with the door kept shut all the time. And, with the door kept shut all the time, sometimes I forget to go into the spare room and tend to things--out of sight, out of mind and all that.

Dawn

I'm trying to get Egyptian walking onions established. I actually have space for them. But they will never be big bulbing onions. Apparently, though, these kinds of perennial onions are how gardeners got onions in "olden times". Onions are starting to bother my stomach, so I'm wondering if walking onions or potato onions would be more digestible. Maybe shallots. I have grown shallots from seed.

Dawn, anything I've ever gotten from George has turned into a keeper!

Amy, I look forward to trying different onion types. I need to get my regular onion stash built so I have room for more. I'm actually considering an onion bed on the south side of the cottage. We cut down shade this spring and it should stay nice and cozy next winter. I could fashion a make-shift hoop to the side of the house in lean-to style to over them up. Come to think of it, if I wanted to save onion seeds, that might be perfecto. Oh boy. lolz

I'm sorry I called you Mark, Mike.

bon

Someplace I read, when you want to save seed you need a "nursery" bed. Brassica, for instance, supposedly needs about a dozen plants for their genetic diversity. (This was per whatever source I was reading). So each year, you plant a dozen brassica. broccoli one year, cabbage the next, etc. So you can let them go to seed. Since brassica is viable for several years, you only let one type go to seed each year. That is if you're 25 and plan to renew seed for the rest of your life. You want that seed to have the genetic diversity to prevent inbred defects. Practically speaking, I'm going to save seed from a single kale plant, because that is what I've got. I like this variety, but I have trouble with germination on it. I want to see if saved seeds are any better. I don't think I will be around long enough to have to worry about inbreeding kale, you know? If I was young again, I would worry. If I had the room, I would do it. I would like to be self sufficient. But at this point, this old woman just wants to grow something to eat. Once I get that figured out I will move on to more seed saving. But really, I like trying new things too much. That is half the fun for me.

Amy, I have had no luck keeping perennial onions alive here, even in the sandy soil at the western end of the garden. I can keep them for a few years, and then a very wet year gets them. I lost most of my Gumbo onions in 2015, and the rest in 2016. I give up. Apparently perennial onions get all testy about things like 24" of rain in one month (May 2015) or annual rainfall of 79" (also 2015), It is funny. I always thought that the drought would get the perennial onions. It didn't. The flooding rainfall got them. Previously I lost perennial onions after, I believe 2010, and also 2007. Unless I grow them in containers, it appears they aren't going to work out here. It doesn't make sense because colocasias survived that rainfall in the same area. So did irises. Apparently the perennial onions are pickier about soil moisture than I believed they were.

Dawn

THAT'S interesting. My walking onions are in a 5 gal bucket after they were dug out of the asparagus bed to save them from the chickens. They are great there, but they can't "walk" in a bucket. I have a small raised bed I was going to designate as the perennial onion bed. Probably put them there anyway and see what happens. At least it's not at the swampy end of the yard.

Dawn yes I kept them growing and then planted them when they were about the size or a little smaller than the Dixondale plants. Planted some smaller one year with good results. I used seed from a few sources although the ones from Burrell's seemed to do very well here.

Bon. No worries doesn't bother me at all. I'm thankful for all the info y'all have.

I have walking onions, and I don't know how you "keep them from walking". A friend gave me 4 or 5 bulbs one year and apparently one of them fell through the wagon where I had left them until I had time to plant. I have had onions growing there in the grass for years now. I have dug them up and given them away, mowed them down, etc., but every year they come back. The others went into the garden and are still walking although not as much since I mulch the area around them every year. Mine are the kind that make little bublets on top and fall over and plant themselves. I don't think planting in a bucket would stop them and they would just fall to the ground and grow. Actually, I never dig them to use for onions, but sometimes I use the blades in cooking like I would use green onions. The underground part is pretty strong.

I tried planting bulbing onions from seed one year, but learned very quickly that transplanting those tiny plants was no fun, and they were growing too close together to leave them as they were. This is the first year in a long time that I haven't planted onions. I usually plant some in raised beds and some in the ground, but I'm afraid even the raised beds might have had too much rain for them this year. My three tomato plants look great, but disease will probably strike soon after all of this rain. These are the same plants that got hit by hail while they were still in their pots. The garlic seems to be loving the rain. I will plant a few more things when this rainfall is over if the dove returns with the olive branch. <grin>

lol

mksmith,

I know what you mean about wanting to save seed and be self reliant. Have you ever grown onions from seed? I have and enjoy it very much. But it is kind of hard. I grew them last year from seed I ordered from Wilhite seed co. I sprouted 400 seedlings and set them out in the garden and grew onions any where from softball/baseball to tennis ball/golf ball size. They were the 1015Y seed. This year I planted the same seed and got a very good stand but during the winter they froze out and I wound up with about 30 onion seedlings which I set out in the garden after the middle of Feb. they are now very pretty but only have 25 now. I don't know what happened I did them the same as last year. Maybe you could try growing from bought seed and see how you do first. From what I read the 1015Y onions are open pollinated seed. I also grow the little green bunching onions from seed and do very well with them. Like I said I enjoy growing onions from seed and watching them start the size of a hair and turn into an onion. It is faster and easier to grow from plants. Like Okiedawn said it takes a lot of time and space if you are in a hurry and most people don't have the time.