Yellow Onions

[Midnightmom]

Which part of a yellow onion is the seed/bulb for growing your next year's crop???

[Cat]

The actual bulb... the part you would eat, if it's bigger.

 

Though of course the green stems are used, too, usually when young and the bulb is small.

 

Most people around here plant little "bulblets" that are bought at the stores. They can also be grown from seed, but they take longer.

 

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Good photo cat!

 

Onions are one of the few vegetables that it is better to buy 'new seed' each year rather then saving your own. They take a lot longer than if you buy the 'sets' (what the photo shows or 'starts' which is seed the greenhouse grower starts very early and you buy wherever you buy vegetable plants. It looks like grass and if you are planting a lot of onions most of the time they are cheaper to buy and IF you do get this kind instead of trying to pull each plant apart - just put the whole thing in a pail of water for a few minutes and the roots will untangle and make it easier to plant them, also if possible try any plant them in trench so that you can make sure the roots are 'hanging' straight down and not bunched up - that helps them grow big and fast.

 

NOW if you have a few onions that have sprouted in storage? Don't toss them out - in the early spring you can plant them out in the garden and in a few weeks you will have green onion shoots for your salads. When you pull them up they will look rotten on the outside but just pull that off and inside you will have a small onion and tall green shoots. NOTHING goes to waste here!

 

[Annarchy]

 

I just harvested my onions. The greenery had begun to wither in the heat, I have harvested most of the seeds, and because I saw an article on the local news showing a farm in our area harvesting them.

 

Last year I planted seeds. Most of the bulbs got about the size of my pinky fingernail, before the heat withered all the greenery. I dug them up, placing them in a cool dark place until I re-planted them this spring (January).

 

This year, the red onions look like Cat's photo. A few of the yellow onions are the size of a soft ball, however most are the size of a base ball and some are as small as the ones in the photo. I will store the small ones and re-plant them in the fall (October) to see how well the grow in the cooler climate.

[Andrea]

I'm only growing Egyptian Walking onions these days. They are a perennial here and all the parts are edible. If anyone would like some starts, send me a pm this fall or next Spring,and I'll be happy to mail you some (it's too hot right now).