When to gather oinion seeds

[wy_white_wolf]

Hi All,

I had 3 onoins volunteer from last year so I just let them go to seed. How Do I know when to harvest the seeds?

WWW

[Paquebot]

After the petals of the flowers are gone, each pollinated blossom will become a green bud. Inside each will be 3 to 5 seeds. They will hold for a long time without falling out. In fact, they will normally fall over and then wait for bacteria to eat the skins away on top of the soil. Just before that happens, snip the clusters off and place them in a paper bag for further drying. When finally dry, work them back and forth between your hands to break the seeds loose from those little buds. Then winnow on a breezy day to get rid of the chaff.

Martin

[Forerunner]

Now Martin, you blasted me for once responding to a simple how-to question regarding the mechanics of saving spinach seed, for the simple fact that I failed horribly in neglecting to make a monumental issue of the fact that it is nearly impossible to keep a spinach strain pure.....

Why have you neglected, here, especially in light of the fact that the onion seed heads in question are all volunteer..... to mention even the remote possibility that the seeds will very likely be compromised by cross pollination, among other things ?

[wy_white_wolf]

What other things would they pollinate with? I only grew 1 kind of onion last year and they are mixed in with my beans and corn.

I noticed last night the the flowers just started to open so it sounds like it will be a while before they are ready. Guess I'm going to have to learn how to grow onoins from seed since I've always used sets.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by Forerunner

Now Martin, you blasted me for once responding to a simple how-to question regarding the mechanics of saving spinach seed, for the simple fact that I failed horribly in neglecting to make a monumental issue of the fact that it is nearly impossible to keep a spinach strain pure.....

No, you were admonished primarily for failing to understand the importance of having both male and female spinach plants. That alone was enough to take your claim of it being simple out of the answer to the person asking the question. Other information supplied was to benefit all others who were interested in doing the same. The reason why the extra information was given was that since the inception of this forum, saving spinach seed never had been the subject. Now the information is there for future reference and need not be covered in great detail.

Martin

[fastbackpony]

This is what I've wanted to know ! thank you !

Another similar question, since I didn't know they had to be dried, etc, we just planted a lot of the little bulbs from the onions, any chance they will come up ? ? Or was it just a big waste of time . . . .