Onion seeds

[wollyanna]

What is the chance of obtaining seeds from onion bought from farmshop. I have found a very good red onion but can't find out its pedigree. If I either just leave it in the vegetable rack( where they sometimes seem to sprout,when you don't want them too) or pot them up,would they eventually go mad and start shooting. In which case would I be able to hopefully collect seed at a later date to sow on. Any suggestions(helpful) would be grateful.

[zazen999]

Obtaining the seeds: stick it back in the ground and leave it be until you see the seeds starting to go black inside - then bring the seed head indoors to dry off.

However, you don't know the pedigree [whether they are F1 or not], in which case you might get a selection of seeds that will grow each parent's type rather than the type you bought. Also, you are limiting the viability by only having the one onion, but if you let it set seed; and then from the resulting harvest, select only the best from THOSE to set seed again, then that will start to give you a stable onion type.

And, when you are selecting from the onions grown from your first set of seeds; always choose the best and the ones that bolt last; to flower and set seed. Otherwise you'll lose your onions to early bolting which is not good.

2 places to go for info - the Real Seeds website, and the Garden Organic website, into the Heritage Seed Library section.