Grow Onions from Seed

Growing onions from seed is one of the best ways to discover the incredible variety of flavors, colors, shapes, and storage qualities that onions can offer. While grocery store onions are convenient, growing unique onion varieties in your own garden can give you access to bold, sweet, pungent, and complex flavors that can transform everyday meals.

In our kitchen, onions are the starting point for countless recipes, which is why we grow them every year. From fresh green onions to large storage bulbs, there is an onion variety for nearly every garden and kitchen.

Types of Onion Seeds

Onions can be grown for their greens, small bulbs, or mature storage bulbs. When choosing onion seeds, it’s important to select a variety suited to your growing region and day length.

• Green Onions & Spring Onions – Grown primarily for their flavorful green tops and tender young bulbs. They are excellent for salads, garnishes, stir-fries, and fresh cooking.
• Bulbing Onions – Grown to produce mature bulbs for fresh eating, cooking, or long-term storage.
• Short-Day Onions – Best suited for southern growing regions where the days are shorter during the bulb-forming season.
• Long-Day Onions – Generally best suited for northern regions with longer summer daylight hours.
• Intermediate-Day Onions – Adaptable varieties that can perform well across a broader range of growing regions.

Choosing the right onion variety for your latitude and growing conditions is essential for producing well-formed bulbs.

When to Plant Onions

The best time to plant onions depends on your variety, location, and whether you are growing them for green onions or mature bulbs. In Southern California Zones 9 and 10, many onion varieties can be planted during the cooler growing season. In temperate climates, onions are often planted in the fall and overwintered for an earlier harvest.

Onions can be direct sown or transplanted depending on your growing system and the variety you choose. Starting onion seeds early can give plants plenty of time to develop before conditions trigger bulb formation.

Start with Fresh Onion Seeds

Onion seed has a relatively short storage life, so using fresh, high-quality onion seeds is important for achieving strong germination and a productive crop. We trial and evaluate our onion varieties for qualities such as flavor, yield, productivity, and garden performance.

We also perform quality-control testing on our onion seed to help ensure that you receive high-quality seed for your garden or farm.

Grow Better Onions from Seed

Whether you’re growing sweet onions for fresh eating, pungent onions for cooking, or green onions for continuous harvests, growing onions from seed opens the door to far more variety than what you typically find at the grocery store.

Explore our selection and find varieties suited to your garden and growing region.