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cziga

Some new bie question I'd really appreciate help with ...

cziga
11 years ago

Hi everyone, I'm not new to vegetable gardening but I'm new to onions this year. We love onions in our house so I thought I'd try growing a couple rows this summer. I have a couple questions, I hope someone can help me out with. I'm sure they're mostly silly "new" questions, but I'd really appreciate it because I know almost nothing about growing onions specifically.

I want to order online because I'd like to know what type I'm growing, specifically. I don't want a bag of random "white onions" that garden centers and walmart's around here seem to sell. I want to plant 1 type of bunching onions, but mostly bulbing ones.

First of all, when it says a "pkt" of onion, from a source like Vesey's or McFayden's ... is that what I'm looking for? Will those be a bunch of small onions, that you plant in rows and will then grow?

Is there a difference between hybrid and heirloom onions? I know that with tomatoes, hybrid seeds won't come true to the parent so you can't save them to replant next summer. Are onions the same way or does having hybrid seed not matter for onions?

How DO you save onions to replant the next year? Do you just pick them early, when still small? Do they put out extra little babies next to them like lilies or other flower bulbs? I'm very unclear on how I would save onions at the end of the summer? I do want to try to save onions to replant the next year if possible.

Also a couple of varieties I was looking at ... any opinions would help. I'm near Toronto, Canada so we do have a long season and I assume long day onions are ok here. I was thinking of Ailsa Craig, Sturon, Candy. For red onions, Redwing. For bunching onions: red baron bunching or evergreen bunching. I know very little about onion varieties, are there any really popular or favorite varieties that I should look for? Is there anything I should know about any of these that I've listed?

Also, if there's anything important a newbie onion grower should know, please let me know. I'm reading through a lot of the posts on this forum to learn more but I'd appreciate any tips. I'm not a gardening newbie, but I'm certainly an onion newbie!!

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