Saving your own onion sets

[SimpleSimon]

I've had a good year with spring onions this year but some red ones didn't do too much. They just formed little bulbs and didn't really grow much green foliage. I cleared the bed today and they look like onion sets. The type of spring onion can be used a main crop onion so wondering if I save these till spring (which probably won't work) could I plant them again as my main crop red onions? Save myself a fiver.

[ESBkevin]

Alliums are a two year crop so they will continue to grow next year as sets. Will they be as good as fresh bought sets? Given the mad dash everyone had for seeds and garden related product this year will you even be able to obtain sets for next year?

I have reused onions like this in the past with mixed success, but I'd be tempted to dry them and give them a go if you have some growing space, nothing to lose. Still do your intended bought sets too though.

[ameno]

They look maybe a little on the large side, but it's worth a go.

Onion sets are literally just onions grown from seed late the previous year, with their growth stopped whilst still small. Normally, onions are biennial and will form a bulb the first year, then flower the second. But since the sets are so small, they are not yet big enough to go into flowering mode, so continue growing as bulbs.
If your sets are too big, however, then they may decide to flower anyway, and red onions are particularly prone to bolting, so that's an extra difficulty.

[Jungle Jane]

I would use some of those,separate into tiny & big. My onions weren’t very big this year,they don’t like growing next to runner beans I think,but with small onions,there’s never half to put in the fridge,you can use the whole thing