Do you love your ornamental onions, even adore them? But you want to try something different than always propagating it with its onions!? How about sowing its seeds?
After flowering, the ornamental onion forms seeds
Sowing is rather unusual
Basically, the sowing of ornamental onions is rather unusual. There are several reasons for this:
- Germination time is long
- more complex than onion propagation
- Chances of success mediocre
- different characteristics than the mother plant
- Seeds rarely commercially available
- takes 3 years to flower
When to start
Ideally, start when you have freshly harvested the seeds. Then their germination capacity is at its best. The seeds should not be stored for too long. If you decide to store them, put the seeds in a container in a dark and dry place.
The seeds can be sown as early as late summer. Sowing outdoors is possible until autumn. If you forget, you can sow the seeds in spring. It is important that cool temperatures can still affect the seeds at the time of sowing. In spring, the period between March and April is perfect.
Sow the seeds at home
The seeds of ornamental onions are so-called cold germs. You should definitely keep this in mind if you want to grow the seeds at home! If they are not exposed to cool temperatures, they will not germinate.
How to proceed:
- wrap the seeds in a damp cloth or kitchen paper
- keep moist and warm for several weeks
- then put the seeds in the fridge or on the balcony (exposure to cold)
- Finally, the seeds are sown in seed soil after about 8 weeks
Sow directly outdoors - less effort
The ornamental onion can also be sown directly outdoors in a sunny to partially shaded location. The best time for sowing is in September.
- Prepare soil (loosen, enrich with compost)
- Cover seeds 1 cm thick with soil
- sludge
- Germination period: 3 months and more
tips
It is not absolutely necessary to pull the ornamental onion from seed with a lot of effort. If he gets the opportunity, he also likes to multiply on his own by self-sowing.