growing onions from seed to harvest

Growing Onions from Seed to Harvest: Guide & Tips

If you have ever wondered how to grow onions from seed? Learn some of the different types of onions and which is the right type of onions for you. Also all the best tips and tricks for growing onions from seed all the way to harvest!

I’ve been growing onions from seed for many years now and have learned a lot in the process. They’re not the easiest thing to start from seed, nor are they the hardest. There is quite a bit of management that goes into starting onions from seed, but it’s a process I will always go through.

Learn How to Grow Onions from Seed to Harvest

Why Grow Onions from Seed?

Growing onions from seed gives you the largest selection of cultivars to choose from. There are many more onion varieties out there with seeds than with onion sets.

There is also the option of saving onion seeds. This takes reliance off of seed companies and help maintain our food sovereignty.

Starting onions from seed are often grown more successfully than those produced from sets. However, onions require a long season, often more than 100 days, and that is one advantage to sets.

When to Start Onion Seeds

Onion seeds need to be started very early in the season. By the end of February, in zone 3 is a good time. It is recommended to start them 10-12 weeks before your last frost date. You can start them earlier than that if you want a larger bulb when transplanting. Around 16 weeks would give you roughly the same size as buying sets.

So, when the rest of your garden is still a dream, the reality of getting your fingers in some soil and cultivating a bit of plant life when the world is frozen, covered with ice and snow, is made possible by starting onion seed in the dead of winter.

They fan the flame of an early spring for me and extend the growing season beyond its normal bounds!

Learn How to Grow Onions from Seed to Harvest! One of my favorite vegetables to start from seed are onions! They give me a chance to garden even when the snow is still on the ground; Growing Onions from Seed

My Experience Learning How to Grow Onions From Seed

Last year, I hatched a plan which I still think is brilliant whereby I started onion seeds from a variety of cultivars. I could start them all at the same time, but their days to maturity were staggered. So I would have a continuous harvest throughout the season with little worry about storage until the late fall harvest.

I’ll take notes and track yields when I come up with these ideas to know if it’s worth it!

  • Purplette- 60 days (2 weeks)
  • Red Marble- 75 days
  • Gold Coin or Bianca di Maggio- 80 days
  • Bridger- 90 days
  • New York Early or Ailsa Craig- 100 days
  • Cabernet – 105 days
  • Sierra Blanca – 109 days
  • Red Wing – 118 days (plant enough for storage)

Since space is at a premium in my basement (where I start my onions from seed) and I don’t want any wasted space, I will “chit” or pre-sprout my onion seeds. It is even more essential to chit your seeds if they were extra seeds in storage from last year.

In a nutshell, “chitting” means starting your seeds in a wet, soil-less environment. A couple of reasons you may be interested in doing so would be to give the seed a jumpstart or to ascertain your germination rate accurately.

The first year I chitted my onion seed, I did so by sprinkling the seeds over one wet paper towel, covering them with a second damp paper towel, and then wrapping them with plastic wrap. I set them on the plant stand under the fluorescent light for many hours of daylight and misted them with a spray bottle filled with water when the towels began to dry out.

My Mistakes When Growing Onions From Seed

However, I waited for way, way too long to transplant the seedlings. Otherwise, the spray bottle step wouldn’t have been necessary. But it’s good to know, if your seeds are slow to start or if you wrung out your towel too well, that you may need it.

The little shoots had begun to grow long and worked their way in between the fibers of the paper towel, and many were lost when I tried to pull them out. Then I tortured the poor babies by planting them in the soil mix upside down! When the root that was sticking up in the air began to dry out and shrivel, I realized my mistake and corrected it. But before you laugh at me, please understand that I was picturing the seed down in the soil with the shoot coming up out of it, so I planted the seed down. Onion seed shells grow up with the seedling and sit on top like a little black cap.

I lost many seedlings between those two mistakes. What I didn’t lose in seed starting was lost later in the garden when I poorly chose the location for planting and then lost the weed battle. Onions hate weeds. And so do I.

My yield- is zero.

Trials and errors have taught me much since then, and when I start my onion seeds later this month, this is how I’ll be growing them. Do yourself a favor and learn from my mistakes and experiences.

How to Grow Onions from Seed; Growing Onions from Seed

How to Grow Onions from Seed to Harvest?

Read along to learn how to grow onions from seed. Next, I will teach you everything you need to know, including how to choose the varieties that will grow best in your garden, when and how to start onion seeds, plus tips for transplanting and ongoing care. Then we’ll talk about how to harvest and cure your onions too. 

Seed Starting

Regarding this first step in our process, there are two methods from which you can choose. So, I thought it would be best for you to know them both, in order to pick what’s best for you.

Pre-Sprouting Method for Growing Onions from Seed

  • Chit seeds by sprinkling them over moist paper towels and wrapping them in plastic to retain moisture. I usually sprout our seeds in a germination chamber. While onion seeds will sprout without light, I recommend setting them in a well-lit place so the shoot will photosynthesize and you can tell which side is up or down. Check your seeds every few days.
  • Once you notice a little shoot emerging from the seed, wait another day or so- no longer.
  • Fill the seed starting containers with MOIST homemade seed starting mix, and tamp it down with your fingers. (If you don’t tamp it, the soil will settle over time, and your roots will be exposed.) Top off the flat with more dirt, but this time don’t tamp it.
  • Gently grasp the seed and gently insert its root down into the ground. Sometimes it will stand, sometimes it won’t. That’s okay. If they get covered up a bit that’s okay too, they’ll emerge in a day or two.
  • Onions are heavy feeders they like a manure rich soil, and they will be in this space for quite a while, pulling nutrients out of this soil. Don’t space them too closely. I plant 4 to every 1 square inch.
  • Sprinkle a very thin layer of vermiculite on top. This will help to prevent damping off disease.
  • If the root becomes exposed I gently bury that portion. If you have any that grew upside down or crooked, then replant them.

Traditional Method for Growing Onions from Seed

  • Fill the seed tray with MOIST seed starting mix (this is my favorite homemade mix recipe) and tamp it down with your fingers. (If you don’t tamp it, the soil will settle over time, and your roots will be exposed.) Top off the flat with more dirt, but this time don’t tamp it.
  • Sprinkle a very thin layer of vermiculite on top. This will help to prevent damping off disease.
  • Onions are heavy feeders, and they will be in this space for quite a while, pulling up nutrients out of the soil mix. Don’t space them too closely. I shoot for 4 to every 1 square inch, but since germination won’t be 100%, I will sow an extra 2 or 3 per square inch to make sure there is no wasted space, and if they all germinate, I will remove them later. Place a lid on it or a humidity dome over the tray to help keep the dirt moist.
  • Do not just broadcast seeds across your flat. Yes, these other two methods are labor-intensive, but I promise you, you are going to regret not taking the time later in the year when your onion seedlings are a thin, scraggly, tangled mess and you’re breaking them during transplant trying to get them apart.

Onion Seedling Maintenance

  • Once the onion seedlings are established and growing well, you’ll notice that they will start to droop. From that point on, they’ll need to have their “haircut” with a scissors about once every 7-10 days. (You can use the trimmings like green onions in recipes.) Keep them trimmed to about 2-3 inches so that they’re busy building a good root system. Lightly blowing a fan on them will make the leaves stronger and stiffer, but this is optional.
  • Keep them watered, but don’t overwater them. Although I have known them to be forgiving, overwatering is not the end of the world.
  • Because onions are heavy feeders, you’ll need to fertilize them. I use cold-pressed fish emulsion. It’s going to smell for a couple of days. It will subside, I promise. Do this once a month.
  • Remember to harden them off before transplanting. You can begin the process indoors by merely brushing your hands over the tops daily. While following this step, you’ll definitely notice them becoming stiffer. About a week or two before transplanting, take them outside during the warmest time of the day for a few hours. Increase the amount of time spent each day outdoors until they’re out 24 hours for a day or two before the transplant. Trim the tops once more before transplanting.
seedling maintenance

Transplanting Onion Seedlings

  • Prepare the site by loosening the top couple of inches of soil. If you have heavy clay, mix in some sand in the top a few inches as onions do well with good drainage and loose dirt. Where there is at least 6 hours of direct sunlight
  • If you plan to use a mulch to suppress weeds in your garden, do so before transplanting. It’s easiest to lay down mulch and then open up a space to plant the onions. In contrast, it’s quite difficult to lay mulch around onion seedlings.
  • You have several spacing options to consider when planting onions. Which you choose depends on your garden space and how you plan to manage weeds.
  • Staggered – planting onions staggered on the diagonal allows for closer spacing (and higher yields).
  • Two Per Hole – plant 2 seedlings per hole and then harvest one early, while they’re still small, and harvest the second at maturity. A great way to extend your harvest season!
  • Four Per Hole In The New Organic Grower, Eliot Coleman shows a method of planting onions where four onions go in each hole. If you planted four seedlings per 1″ pot, that makes transplanting a breeze. We tried this method last year, and they grew just as well as those in a staggered row.
  • Single Row, Inter Planted – One method is to plant a single plant in a row. Instead of keeping the row weeded, interplant a quick-growing crop like arugula or radishes, which are ready to harvest in 30 days.
growing onions

How to Harvest Onions?

  • If you’ll be enjoying your onions fresh, you can begin harvesting at any point after the bulbs have developed.
  • For onions that will be in storage, watch for their tops to bend over and die off. This is your cue that they’re about ready to harvest. At this point, bend all of the leaves over to the ground. This will tell the bulb to go dormant, finish maturing, and ripen. It’s an important step to make sure your onions are all ready for the curing process at the same time.
  • If your bulbs are mostly buried when the tops die back, gently pull them partially out of the ground. Brush the soil away from the top 2/3rds of the bulb.
  • If you’re experiencing a wet summer and are worried about onions rotting, pull them early. Cure them in a greenhouse, barn, or shed. (Though they might not keep as long in storage.)
Onions grown from seed drying in a barn

Curing & Storing Onions

  • Once the tops have mostly dried, harvest the onions and place them in a warm, dry place to cure. We’ll put a cheap box fan on them to increase air circulation. Curing onions well will make sure they keep longer in storage.
  • First of all, allow 2 weeks for the tops to die off and dry out then trim them off about 3″ above the crown.
  • Also, store cured onions in a dark place, just above freezing temperatures.
  • If your onions begin to sprout, you can always preserve them by caramelizing them and canning them in a pressure canner.

Recommended Varieties of Onions to Plant

onions

Crystal White Wax

This onion is an all-around winner. You can eat it with anything, pickle it, or even bite into it raw and enjoy it because it is sweet. Crystal White Wax is not overly spicy and has loads of flavor. One of the best things about this onion for a gardener is its resistance to diseases.

Sturon

These onions are incredibly high quality and are a good medium size. They have yellowy-brown skin and take a round shape. The Sturon onion is considered a dual-purpose onion because it can be planted close or far apart from green bunching onions. This type has a thin neck shape and is great for winter growth. Since they do well in the cold, this makes them an automatic steal for gardeners.

Evergreen Long White

The evergreen is of the bulbless kind. It has a calm flavor and looks similar to leeks. These are good-sized onions that do great in overwintering and make perfect spring bunching. Evergreens are one-of-a-kind onions that likely come from Asia. They are desirable for farmers because of their ability to thrive in cold and warm seasons alike.

Southport Red Globe

These purple onions are incredible for so many reasons. They are a bulb type that grows from medium to large sizes, and they have a glossy outside with a thin neck and a bright color that is unmatched among onions. If you are looking for an aesthetically pleasing onion to incorporate into your garden and transition onto your table, this is your best bet.

Tokyo Long White

This type of onion looks like a leek if you’ve ever seen one. The flavor is toned down with a twist of sweetness. This is the perfect onion for salads, stir-fries, soups, and Asian foods. They can be grown from spring until summer. The only downside of these would be their inability to overwinter.

Redwing

These onions are enormous, have a beautiful deep purple color, and contain fantastic flavor. They can be eaten raw, they are so good! They are firm, a bit bitter, and have thick skin. Once grown, these onions store for a long time, up to 118 days.

Ailsa Craig

This type of onion is named this because a gardener took the namesake of the Marquis of Scotland. It has a rich history, which is exciting. As for its body, you will marvel at this onion which contains a small neck and weighs about two pounds. They are powerful flavorwise just as they are large. The color of this onion is a straw type of yellow. These are great for gardeners and farmers for obvious reasons: they are huge!

Patterson

Patterson onions pride themselves on being the longest-storing type available. They do very well in long-term storage. They are great winter onions, they are globe-shaped and straw-colored, and they mingle bitter with sweet scents and taste perfectly. They are flavorful and fresh onions that put a tough front up.

Italian Torpedo

Italian Torpedos are great for Italian food. The Torpedo is the go-to onion you taste in most Italian cooking, which is why when I tell you the flavor is sweet and tender, you will be able to think back on the exact taste of authentic Italian kinds of pasta and lasagna. The skin is a bright red, and the bulbs are large. These onions are desirable in so many dishes, making them worth your time spent in the garden with them.

Problems & Solutions on Growing Onions from Seed

There is nothing new under the sun. If you are beginning to grow onions from seed, there are many potential issues you may run into. Don’t fear them, instead, get one step ahead of them by doing your research beforehand.

onions in basket

Fertilizing, Diseases, and Parasites

  • Continue to fertilize with fish emulsion fertilizer or compost tea once a month throughout the growing season. If the leaves start to yellow, you need more fish emulsion. I make sure to use my Homestead Management Binder to keep track of when I need to do jobs like this. If I don’t, I will forget to do them altogether or won’t remember when I’m supposed to do them again.
  • So, your plants are not growing as tall as you’d like them to. This could be a sign that worms are in the roots. In order to avoid this issue, you will want to check the dirt before you plant. If you do see worms, the soil needs to be flooded. Worm infestations can be stopped by taking the entire infested pants out of the ground and making sure to keep the entire garden clean, especially around the infected area.
  • If your onions are suffering from onion necks that are thick and short plants, this is likely a lack of potassium or phosphorus. Compost dressing is the way to go here.
  • Onions hate competition from weeds. I’ve used old hay mulch to suppress weeds, and it makes weeding a breeze.
  • If you have a spongy or soaked bulb neck, there are some simple things you can do. Removing infected plants and keeping weeds at bay are some of the best steps if you see mold, rot, or fungus.
  • Were you aware that the flower stalks could be sucking all the nutrients up, leaving none for the actual bulb of the onion? If your bulbs are hollow, show them some love by cutting the flowers off the plant, so the nutrients go to the right place.

Timing, Watering, and Soil

  • Keep them watered regularly, without overwatering, until the tops begin to die off and then cease watering.
  • Are your leaves streaked or blotchy? These are called thrips, and they are common in warm weather. The best way to keep them clean is by spraying them with water and insecticidal soap, to give them a nice little bath. Humans aren’t the only ones who need good hygiene!
  • If your plants are leafy but don’t contain any bulbs, some changes need to be made. You will need to make sure you are planting at the right time, as well as keeping them at cool temperatures. This is the only way bulbs will be able to form. You can best solve this issue by putting the onions in the fridge a few weeks before you intend to plant them, so you have chilled cloves.
  • Is your root red or pink? Do you have fewer crops each season? A disease has likely taken over your soil. Fungus takes the form of these colors in the root, and the only way to avoid this in the future is by making sure you only plant onions in drained soil and make it a habit to rotate crops.
  • Onion bulbs that are split up into sections can only mean one thing: uneven watering. Start fixing this problem by making sure the dirt is entirely moist all over. If you are not getting better results, begin mulching the soil. This helps to allow the ground to retain moisture evenly.
  • Have you ever tasted an onion that was supposed to be sweet, but ended up being bitter? The onion is likely, not bad; it is actually stressed out. The stress of heat and water can cause bitterness. Knowing this, begin growing your sweet onions in cooler weather with even watering, even using mulch if necessary.

Saving Onion Seeds

If you want to save seeds from the onions you grow, you need to let those onions hang out in the ground until the next season. When the flowers pop up in the second year, that’s when the seeds are good to keep. Just one onion can give you loads of seeds, so no need to keep a ton in the ground.

Note: If you happen to have flowers form in the first year, that means that the onion is bolting. You do not want to save those seeds. You can still use that onion, however, but it will not keep so you will want to you it right away after pulling it.

What we like to do is pick out a couple of the big, healthy-looking onions, preferably at the end of a garden row, and let them do their thing for the next year. Or you can set aside a special spot in your garden just for growing crops you want to save seeds from. That way, you won’t accidentally swipe next year’s seed stash!

Final Thoughts on How to Grow Onions from Seed

Finally, it is your time to share your experience and thoughts in the comment section below. Tell me everything: How do you grow onions from seed? Do you succeed in growing onions from seed? Did you encounter any problems? If so, tell us what happened!

Last but not least, do you have a favorite onion seed variety that you grow? I’ll wait for all of that and whatever further questions you have in the comments. Please, do not hesitate to share your roadblocks! We are all here for each other!

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8 Comments

  1. This is great information. Thanks. I have failed in previous years, but I feel so much more confident now with your step by step process. Do you have a way to harvest seeds from these onions? I would love to gather my own seed instead of always having to rely on a seed company.

    1. I haven’t tried to do that yet, but I believe onions flower the second year so you would just leave them along until after they flowered and set seed. I’m thinking you would watch closely and harvest the seed after it starts to dry, but before it falls to the ground. For plants like that, I place them in a paper bag to finish drying and shake them out in the bottom of the bag later. Sustainable Seed Co. is a great place to find good heirloom seeds fairly inexpensively.

  2. our onion seeds are growing great, thanks for all of the knowledge! I am curious to learn more about transplanting outside and when. We are here in Iowa, last frost date is around May 15th. When would you recommend setting them out? How tall or thick should they be?

    Thanks again for all the work!

    1. It ‘s not too big a deal whether they are thick or thin. Of course, they’re easier to work with when they are thicker. Same thing with height. I give mine another “haircut” a day before transplanting because they are much easier to transplant when short. Much less tangling. With no protection (row cover, plastic tunnels) I plant mine 2 weeks before the last frost. Hope that helps!

  3. What do the seeds like like when they have chitted properly? I feel like mine maybe molding….. :-/

    1. How many days has it been? If you’re still within the proper time frame, it might just be the root hairs. They look a lot like mold. If you give it another day or two you might see a white root coming out the bottom. That’s what you’re looking for. You don’t necessarily need to see the root and shoot. You can transplant as soon as you notice the root.

  4. HOW DID YOU KNOW??!! I was just thinking earlier today that I needed to research this ASAP. Even though we have grown vegetables on a larger scale for about 6 years, I have actually never started my own onion seeds. Now that we are growing on a personal (still large lol) scale this year, I wanted to try to start everything from seed including the onions. I am so thankful for this post, Quinn! Im also thankful for the homestead management binder printables I printed out yesterday 😉

    1. So glad this was timely and that you’re putting those printables to good use. So you guys decided not to do the CSA this year then?