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Post by snoozy on Mar 29, 2020 17:27:11 GMT
What will I get? I've got a bag of red onions in the pantry and some of them are sprouting. If I pop them in the soil, will they give me one more onion? Several? Greens only?
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Post by feather on Mar 29, 2020 17:30:32 GMT
You'll get the onion to grow a huge stalk 3-5 feet tall, which should be staked. Then it will flower, and you can wait for it to be done making seeds, harvest the seeds to plant next spring. Sometimes you get 2 or 3 stalks on one onion.
Behind the onions in the foreground, you see those white balls? Those are the onion flowers on stalks. They are growing among the tomatoes.
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Post by snoozy on Mar 29, 2020 17:33:44 GMT
Hmmph. Not sure if that will be worth the effort, since I don't have a lot of sunshine on my garden bed and onions haven't been very successful whenever I've planted them.
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Post by feather on Mar 29, 2020 18:17:00 GMT
 Those are the onion flowers in bloom. You are in washington state correct? Long day onions, not short day, not intermediate day. Your article was great on your blog. |
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Post by snoozy on Mar 29, 2020 20:15:38 GMT
Thanks! ☺️
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Post by Jolly on Mar 30, 2020 12:17:53 GMT
You'll get the onion to grow a huge stalk 3-5 feet tall, which should be staked. Then it will flower, and you can wait for it to be done making seeds, harvest the seeds to plant next spring. Sometimes you get 2 or 3 stalks on one onion.
Behind the onions in the foreground, you see those white balls? Those are the onion flowers on stalks. They are growing among the tomatoes.
How do you harvest the seeds? |
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Post by feather on Mar 30, 2020 13:30:32 GMT
Jolly, we had to stake the stalks, because they would break off if we didn't. Once they bloomed, we waited until they started to sag and look old, cut them into a large grocery bag. Since we wanted them to dry out (the flowers), they can really be ignored, shook a few times during the next week or so. Just be sure to remove large pieces of vegetable matter, so you don't grow mold on them. The seeds are tiny and black, vegetable matter/flower petals are lighter weight and brown. We winnowed them, with a hair dryer. Once collected, we have 2 sieves and cleaned them up more, bagged them and then we froze ours to use in spring.
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Post by Jolly on Mar 30, 2020 15:26:54 GMT
Jolly , we had to stake the stalks, because they would break off if we didn't. Once they bloomed, we waited until they started to sag and look old, cut them into a large grocery bag. Since we wanted them to dry out (the flowers), they can really be ignored, shook a few times during the next week or so. Just be sure to remove large pieces of vegetable matter, so you don't grow mold on them. The seeds are tiny and black, vegetable matter/flower petals are lighter weight and brown. We winnowed them, with a hair dryer. Once collected, we have 2 sieves and cleaned them up more, bagged them and then we froze ours to use in spring. Thank you! |
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Post by mogal on Mar 30, 2020 16:04:30 GMT
We winnowed them, with a hair dryer. I've used a breeze box fan to winnow grain but this is very clever. |
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Post by feather on Mar 30, 2020 16:14:48 GMT
We winnowed them, with a hair dryer. I've used a breeze box fan to winnow grain but this is very clever. There's a little bit of a learning curve with the hair dryer. If you get too close to the seeds it will send them flying, so back off, clean up the seeds that flew out, start again. Start farther away, getting close enough to send the dry vegetable matter out while the seeds congregate in the corners or sides of box/pan. And each seed type is different, onion seeds are small and touchy, while coriander for instance is big and heavier. |
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Post by Weed on Mar 31, 2020 15:24:40 GMT
I’ve done most of the winnowing/seed cleaning methods mentioned above for onion seed. They work ok - but its too time consuming. My method these days is the sink and skim method that Martin advised me to try. I know, it doesn’t sound quite right to sink the seeds in a big bowl of water but it works great and had zero affect on the viability. Sink the seed, push/rinse the floating chaff etc.. off the surface, lay the seed out on a window screen to thoroughly dry, vac seal and freeze. According to viability charts, onion seed last 1 year. I have seed from 2016 that I am still getting an estimated 75+% germination from
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Post by midtnmama on Apr 3, 2020 14:11:20 GMT
You people are just amazing. Hair dryers? I'm so lazy and just live with chaff. Those onion flowers are edible and delicious (as are garlic scapes) in cooking.
Also: BLOG? What blog? I want to read the blog!!! Please link!!!
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