Terry Coombs wrote:

....re onion seeds...
Â* When is a good time to harvest those seeds ? I have several bunching
onions in bloom right now , and I'm considering starting from seed for
next year .

for regular onions i cut the heads off and put
them in cardboard box tops or flats to finish drying
in only one layer so they won't get fungi and i also
turn them once in a while to make sure they're getting
evenly dried out. i know it is time when i see the
first seeds start to show (when the seed pods start
to crack open and you see the black seeds in them).

this is the first time i've got bunching onions
to grow here and i'm not sure the seed heads are
the same for these as regular onions yet. they're
still flowering and covered with bees.

chives i have grown before and those are a bit
different than regular onions in that the seeds
seem pretty quick to fall.

for the bunching onions the only reason i have them
growing now is that a friend mailed me some of his
plants. i am never planning on growing any from seeds
because these plants will divide easily and keep
growing even after eating some of them i expect to
have plenty of divisions to do a whole line of them
for the next round.

the seeds from the bunching onions i'll give away
at the seed swap - that's the only reason i'm
harvesting them and drying them out when they're
ready. i'll know in a week or two if they are more
like chives or regular onions or what.

so far i'm pretty impressed by how well they've
grown and the deer, rabbits, etc. have been leaving
them alone.

when i've tried to grow bunching onions from seeds
in the past i've not had very good luck, but i always
direct sow seeds in the garden and they could have
been too old of seeds anyways.

i've had reasonably good enough luck with the fresh
onion seeds i've harvested myself here. i threw away
several ounces of seeds last year because i could not
use it all and nobody wanted it. by throwing away i
mean feeding to the worms as i don't throw much away
here if i can help it. all organic matter is welcome.

songbird