growing onions questions

   anyone here grow onions from seed?

  we normally grow our yellow onions from
sets from the greenhouse, but i've managed
to get some seed heads on an onion sprout
that was left over from last year.

  now i have three large flower heads
full of seeds ripening and would enjoy
hearing from people who've done this.

  my basic plan is to get the seeds
planted as soon as i can get a spot for
them and then they'll grow through the
fall and come back next year to form the
onion bulb.

  if i want more seeds i'll have to leave
an onion from this year alone to flower
again next year.


  another type of onion question.

  i have picked up some bunching onion seeds
and they say to plant in the spring so i'll do
that.  but for flowering and more seed production
could i put some of those out now and get them
going so they will bloom next year or do i need
to wait until spring and they will bloom the
same season like our chives do?

  thanks for your replies.


  songbird

 songbird wrote:

  ha, and even more but this is more
experimental in nature.

  i have taken the bottoms off of cut
onions (with roots attached in some cases)
and buried them again.  i'm hoping the
left over nutrients in the bulb will feed
the roots and (apex i think it is called
but we can call it anything you'd like)
eventually sprout some onions again from
that.  keep it moist and get a few clones
from the original onion to grow out next
year.

  anyone else tried this?  :)


  songbird

 Derald wrote:

tender

  the ones i've stuck in the ground aren't bunching onions,
so i'm not sure if they'll go or not, but i figured it was
worth the grins.  i couldn't figure out last fall where this
one onion that grew had come from other than it was left
over bits that had stayed in the ground when it was pulled.  
i figured a test of the method was fitting.  even if they
do nothing other than put up seed heads next year that would
be fine with me.  as you say, they get a lot of activity
from the insects.

  right now we have a lot of honey bees around on some
blooming plants.  it's the first time this year i've seen
this many at a time.  i'm hoping there is a wild colony
someplace around here.  i don't know of anyone keeping
them.


  songbird

 songbird wrote:

If you plant them now, don't pamper them if they come up.  You want
the bulbs really small when they go dormant for the winter.  Not sure
what the cutoff size is, maybe a centimeter; much bigger than that and
they will bloom next year instead of growing big.

I would wait until just before the grown freezes to plant them where
you want them to sprout in the spring.

(I have some onion seeds drying too.  Gonna do the same thing)

-Bob

 zxcvbob wrote:
...

  we have about 4 weeks of time before the frosts
will start hitting.  i'm thinking of dividing the
seeds in half and plant some now and then the rest
next spring.

  i did some research at the library today and
found one book that mentioned growing from seeds
and what you've mentioned about size (when buying
onion sets, not in particular about growing from
seed).



  we really enjoy having onions out there when we need
them instead of having to run to the store.  the trouble
we had this year was the growing medium the onions were
sprouted in had something the raccoons liked so they
were digging them up.  the rest of the years we've grown
onions they have been inside the fenced garden so the
raccoons left them alone.  by growing from seed in the
spot where they'll be at next year they won't have any
funny medium underneath them to attract raccoons.  they'll
smell just like the rest of the millions of chives/alliums
we have around that don't ever get bothered.

  at least that's the theory.  :)  thanks for answering.


  songbird