SAVING SEEDS - ONIONS
By: Ron
The One Who Walks Two Paths
Let's try the onion...
..as you should be planting the seed now. Onions come in two types: storage and the short keepers. How do you tell the two apart? That's easy! Long term storage onions come as those cute little sets we all buy in the stores. And the summer onions (short-term keepers) we plant as seeds in the late winter and can buy at the nursery as green onion plants.
I like to plant my seeds in an old flat, and unlike some who just strew the seed all over the top and get this really nice green grass carpet going, I plant them by the seed about 1/2-inch apart. This makes it very easy to pull them apart and plant them. Also, they grow somewhat bigger.
Onions are phototropic breeders. By that, I mean that when the daylight gets over 10 hours a day they want to send up flower stalks and reproduce. So, if you want the huge onions that weigh well over a pound each, plant them early. I have planted onion sets in my greenhouse in November. The temps were in the 80's during the day and the 70's at night, and they got huge! Then, along comes the end of June into July and up come the flower stalks that you have to keep cutting off to get the bulbs bigger.
Unlike peas, which can stand a small freeze, you really don't want your onion sets to freeze. One of the tricks I have used is to plant in mid-March and mulch with straw heavily. When the sun starts to go down, I heap the mulch on top of the plants to hold the heat in. The following morning when the chill is off, I remove the straw. This is a little labor-intensive for my liking, and I can always find an odd corner or somewhere under a bench in the greenhouse to plant onions.
Ok, now you have onions and want to save some seed. I would let up to a dozen of the largest go ahead and flower sometime in July. They have a very pretty purple-white flower. After a few weeks, you will notice that the flower petals have fallen off and small green globes are forming on the end where the flowers were. That is the time to stake the stalks so wind or weather does not damage or break them off.
I usually find an old pair of panty hose. One set cut into small sections should cover all the stalks. You want to tie one end shut and cover the flower end (the new seed capsules) then, using a twist tie, carefully tie the bottom under the flower head (not too tight to cut into the stem). This allows the seed head to ripen and drop the seed without losing it.
You will notice the stalk start to get brown, dry and become brittle. That is the time to cut the stalk down near the base of the leaves, gather all the stems together and hang from a warm dark place for a couple of weeks - I use the attic over the garage. It is easy to then dump the seed from the stocking into a shallow tray and gently blow the chaff off. Store in a jar or the ever-ready film container (by the way, you can get these free for the asking at any one hour photo place). These dozen plants will start to die back before any of the rest and it is best to use them first as they just don't seem to store as long as the others.
Now, there's a slight difference in storage onions or those long keepers as they sometimes are called. After harvest choose the smallest, say the size of a golf ball or smaller, and place them in a nylon or one of those net bags citrus comes in. Hang them in a warm, dry, dark place like a closet in the furnace room. Check on them often and remove any that start to grow or get mushy. You will notice that they seem to shrivel and dry up, but as long as they still have a solid fleshy core, they will grow again come spring.