Can I ask why, UKMom?

Here in Kentucky sets generally do not produce well, unless you're using them for green onions. Usually you get small bulbs at best.

More importantly, there is that summer dormancy thing. Onions grow best in the spring, then again in the fall. During high summer they go dormant. If you first plant in July or early August, nothing much will happen. Then, in late August or September, about the time you start thinking you've killed them, they start to grow.

So, if you must use sets, I would continue buying them where you do (you're not going to find better prices, even in bulk). Save half of them for a fall planting, storing them in the fridge until late August.

My real recomendation is that you purchase plants, if you want bulbs. Lots of choices available from folks like Dixondale. In Central Kentucky you can start setting plants in mid-March. Then, if available plants don't provide the choices you want, next year you can try growing from seed. Seed should be set, in our area, indoors in January.

Still another alternative is to go with multiplying onions, and fall plant them, as you would garlic.

GardenLad,
Last year at my market I sold green onions in the spring and early summer. I wanted to keep planting throughout the summer but by then I could not find sets. I also thought if I bought them in bulk I might be able to get them at a better price.
I did buy my onion plants from dixondale for my large onions last year. Thanks for the help.
Kim

It may not be to late to start seeds in flats for growing green onions. I am in zone 5/6. and I just keep growing a 4 inch pot of onion seeds every month for feeding my family. I plant them out whenever I have a little bit of ground open.
Have you thought of trying bunching onions? The way I understand it they keep in the ground with out bulbing till you need to harvest them. You could either start inside or straight seed those.

Which market do you sell at, Kim?

Anyway, in terms of availability, all the commercial generic sets are grown in Texas. They are grown in August, held at 48 degrees until spring, and then shipped. Which is why markets carry them only in the spring.

I have no idea what the minimum order is from a producer. But I'm sure it's more than you need at any one time. And the shipping costs would make it prohibitive, compared to what you pay locally.

The only place I know that might have them later in the year is Fayette Seed. But I stress the might; there's just not much demand for them after the spring planting season.

I always thought that was odd, because we do have a fall onion growing season, and many people, I'm sure, would purchase them if they were available.

Not that it is of any importance, but I believe most onion sets are grown in Illinois. I read somewhere that production is concentrated in a couple counties not far from Chicago. See Dutch Valley sets. Magic Valley grows some in Idaho.

Robert

Thanks for all the info everyone. I set up at the market in Frankfort. Not nearly as large as Lexington, but handy for me. I had just been reading some about bunching onions in a seed catalog. Might be to late to order seeds and then get them planted for spring planting, but could use for later in the summer. I will look into Dutch Valley Sets.
Thanks,
Kim

Kim, you might look into top setting onions as well: Egyption Walking and/or Catawissa. They're usually the first green to appear in the spring, and could give you a running jump on things. You could actually be harvesting them at the time of your first set planting.

I don't know how things are at Frankfort, but as for Lexington, you're just as well to be out of that political mess.