Saving Onion Seeds

 Saving Onion Seeds

It’s March, and that means it’s seed starting season here on the farm. Our shallot, onion and leek seeds have all germinated. They’re some of the earliest seeds that we start each year.

Although it takes more effort to grow onions from seed (instead of the sets of little bulbs), it’s well worth it in my opinion. There are so many varieties of shallots, onions and leeks available if you choose to grow them from seed. Onion seeds are relatively expensive as there are typically not very many in a standard seed packet. Once I started saving my own onion and shallot seeds, I quickly understood why this is the case. Onions are a biennial seed crop which means they don’t flower and produce seed until their second year.

My first attempt was saving “French Shallot” seeds. In 2020, I grew shallots in my garden from seeds that I purchased from a local, small seed farm. I harvested those shallots in the fall of 2020, saved them over winter in our cellar and then planted the nicest 16 shallots in the garden in the spring of 2021. They produced beautiful tall, white flower heads that matured and produced seed. I pick the dried flower stems and let them dry a little more before cleaning the small black seeds from the other dried flower parts. I was able to save a jam jar full of seeds from those flower heads. In the spring of 2022, I planted the seeds that I saved and in the fall of 2022, I harvested a nice crop of shallots from those seed that I saved back in 2021. The various stages of growth (from mature shallot, to seed to seedlings) are shown in the photos below.

Since different onion crops can cross pollinate, I have only saved one variety each year. In 2022, I saved seed from “Rossa Di Milano” onions that I grew in 2021, saved over winter, and planted out in spring 2022.

Onion seeds have a relatively short shelf life and I find that germination decreases quite significantly compered to some other types of seed. In March of 2023, I have started French Shallot that I saved in 2021 and Rossa Di Milano seeds that I saved in 2022. This year, I’m going to try saving Dakota Tears onion seeds that I grew in 2022 and have stored in the cellar this winter.

Did you know that we offer seed-saving workshops here on the farm? It’s an affordable, 2 hour long, hands-on workshop for seed saving beginners that includes a tour of our gardens. Participants get to take home a selection of seeds grown and saved here at Bar M Ranch.