Anyone who is intensively involved in the cultivation of onions as a hobby gardener will also want to start multiplying the onions they need for cultivation themselves. You can also grow the seeds yourself.

The seeds for propagation can be harvested by yourself

Grow onions from purchased seeds

This is the easier and faster way to propagate onions. There are many different types of seeds on the market:

  • firm fleshy onions
  • yellow onions, such as the Zittau yellow or the Stuttgart giant
  • white onions, such as the White Queen pearl onion
  • red onions, such as the Braunschweiger Dunkelblutrote
  • Spring onions, like the Japanese Ishikura
  • Shallots, like the Yellow Moon

Seeds are sown densely in rows in spring. The location should be sunny and the soil should be loose and nutrient-rich. After some time, small onions, the so-called onion sets, develop.
These are harvested, dried and stored in a cool place over the winter.
If the onion sets are to be planted in spring, place them in a warm room about four weeks before sowing. A temperature of around 20 degrees activates onion growth.
Then put the onion in humus-rich, well-drained soil in a sunny spot. Now it's time to wait, water and pull weeds. It takes a few months for the homegrown onions to be ready to harvest.

Growing onions from homegrown seeds

This variant takes even more time than cultivating with purchased seeds, since a young onion must first form a flower that sheds seeds.

harvest seeds

If the young onion has developed a flower, it must fully ripen. If the inflorescence dries up, you can cut it off. To prevent the seeds from getting lost, a paper bag is put over the flower and the stem is hung upside down to dry. The seed pods remain in a dry and cool place throughout the winter.
Only in the spring of the following year do you shake out the seeds and sow them in the bed.
The further procedure is the same as with purchased seeds.

Which seed is germinable?

With the abundance of harvested seeds, not all specimens are germinable. There is a simple method to separate the good seeds from the bad ones.

  1. Fill a bowl with water.
  2. Pour in the seeds and watch what happens.
  3. Seeds capable of germinating sink to the bottom of the bowl, seeds without germinating float to the top.
  4. Collect the empty seeds from the water surface.
  5. Now pour the water through a sieve, leaving the germinable seeds behind.
  6. Dry the seeds for a while and then sow them.

Category:

Vegetable garden