I just noticed an 8" stem coming out of a neglected onion sitting atop my fridge, which I'm inspired to plop in the garden. If I plant this large yellow onion, which seems eager to become a plant, what will I get out of it? Will it produce a cluster of onions like garlic? Grow a solitary onion? I've never grown onions before, so I'm pretty clueless here.
ROFLMAO Fleemo!
All you'll get if you plant the onion is a bunch of leaves with eventually a flower stalk.
Sorry, no free onions.
Sue
Ok, ok, I admit, I can be pretty dense. But how do you propagate onions if not from the onion itself? I suppose you could use the flower's seed, but don't you usually propogate things like onions and garlic from the tuberous part of the plant?
I don't know about other peoples onions but they've grown for me this way. Plant the little sucker and see if it grows for you too. You're not out a thing by trying. Hmmm,maybe all those onion sets and onion seeds I see in the nursery every year are 'virtual'?
That's essentially how I grow onions.
How do you do it?
HI Harry,
I start from seed in February, transplant the grassy sprouts in early may, harvest onions in September.
I have tried "sets" as in the tiny bulbs but have better yield starting from seed.
Fleemos comment that he had sprouting onions ontop of his fridge meant to me that it was a full size onion, not a "set".
Sue
Yes Sue that's right There are 3 ways to grow onions: seeds plants sets (immature bulbs) I usually skip the seeds and buy bunches of the small plants at the nursery in Feb. and have onions by sometime in June.
Walla Wallas Yum!
Fleemo go ahead and plant the sprouted mature onion. You will get an interesting flower, or at the least, add some OM to your soil. Emilie NorCal
Emilie,
I did buy the mail-order plants one year, and yes they came in February. In western Maine, we had 5 feet of snow that February. Let me say that was one expensive bunch of "scallions" LOLOL!
They would be wonderful for folks where the ground is plantable at that time. I have to make my own onion plants, ready to plant as soon as I can make a hole in the soil.
Onion sets tend not to make root growth quickly enough here in cold soil, but my seed started plants, well hardened off on the back porch, will make a go of it.
Sue
It is indeed a full size onion, and a large one at that. I was just wondering whether this would yeild any additional onions, or what exactly it would do if I planted it. If it's just going to grow a flower stalk, perhaps it's not worth the trouble. Unless, of course, I collect the seeds and propogate them that way. Any downside to collecting seeds from a store-bought onion?
-Fleemo
Why not just stuff it in a pot and have another green thing growing inside?
I also find onions from the supermarket produces leaves and flower, no sets. They're probably too tired from the long truck ride, sitting on the grocer's shelves and finally being cooped up in my fridge.
I have better luck getting more onions from Egyptian Walking and potato onions.
I did that this summer to a couple of onions that started growing in the fridge and got this:
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