Saving onion seeds might seem a little mysterious. I’ve grown onions for years and never had them “go to seed” like my lettuce or spinach plants do. That’s because like carrots, onions are biennial. They won’t seed the first year, but need to be overwintered and will grow a seed head the second year. Overwintering can be accomplished by leaving the onion in the ground and covering with a thick layer of mulch or harvesting in the fall, storing, and then replanting the onion the following spring. Onions will cross pollinate with other onions, so if you want a pure strain, only plant one variety for seed saving.
This is my first onion seed growing experiment. I had one onion that accidentally lived through the winter in the ground and a couple more I planted from storage to keep it company. The storage ones didn’t do very well for me–I may have planted them too late, and I wasn’t watching them very well either to make sure they had plenty of water at transplant time. Here’s the progression:
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Early spring planting. The onion that overwintered in the ground had already tried to send up a seed head and it got picked by my toddler.
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New seed heads growing
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Flower buds
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Onion flowers blooming
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The onion flowers died off and left these seed pods.
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Seed pods drying
When most of the seed pods are dry, you can cut the whole thing from the plant and store it in a paper sack to finish drying. Any seeds that do not fall out on their own can be shaken or crushed out.
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Onion seeds!
Store your onion seeds in a cool, dry place through the winter and replant the next spring. Because onions are a biennial, if this is a survival garden and you have limited seeds, save some for planting the second year while the first year’s onions are working on producing seed.
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