For bulbs it's too late. They can make some scallions yet if you keep them moist.

Agree - way too late to get any slicing onions but you can grow them for salad green onions. ;)

Dave

In the future, you can always check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it.

Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri (download the pdf) complete with spring and fall planting dates (underneath the spring planting dates for appropriate crops), how much to plant per person, etc. They can also tell you the average last frost date for your area and ideal planting times for specific crops and varieties in your area.

See how detailed this example is:

{{gwi:4005}}

Yeah, I think it's too late unless you're sure they're not day-length sensitive. If they're the "100 onion sets" package sort they sell in stores, then it's too late to get bulbs out of them this year. You can plant them to harvest as scallions, or you can plant them in a few days or weeks or months when you finish harvesting something else and have some empty space in the garden. Then cover them with mulch when it frosts and leave them be over the winter. They'll come up next year and bulb out then (though they'll also try to go to seed, so you won't want to store them for more than a few weeks after picking... and make sure you cut off any seed heads as soon as you see them... unless you want seeds).

My dad used to plant everything in one fell swoop on Memorial Day. But he didn't grow any of the veggies which typically need early planting such as peas and spinach. At this late stage in my gardening career, I'm learning that a number of things do best with very early planting, which would be April around here. Onions are one of those things.

Jim

gottagarden:

Onion sets are not the way to grow bulbing onions. Onions are binenneals, and the 2nd season they go to seed. Sets are good only for green onions.

If you want to grow bulbs, buy onion seed, and plant indoors in February or early March. Line out the small plants in the garden in April, leaving plenty of room between plants. By mid-July you will be able to pull nice onion bulbs.

I recommend the variety called "Candy". Very sweet and crisp, and a much better keeper than advertised if kept dry.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Mr. Jellyman,

My Candy onions never keep very well. I think I keep them dry. What do you do special ? I was going to try vacumm bagging each one to see if that helps.

Thank you.

My guess is that vacuum bagging is precisely the wrong thing to do. What is needed is ventilation. That's why onion bags are made of mesh. Does that make sense?

Jim

Yes,

Just wanted to try to stop this :( Even the ones on the right were bad :((((

{{gwi:63089}}

I have taken soft onions and cleaned them and froze them whole and later droped the frozen onions into hot pot of soup and cooked them. It worked just fine for me. You might try it with a few to see if it works for you. Better than letting them go to waste.

I did it with Vidalias from the store.

Thanks for all the answers. I'm very experienced with flowers, but new to veggies.

I have room in my garden, so I may try planting them and getting scallions (never knew they weren't a different type) and may leave some over the winter just as an experiment to see if they grow into bulbs next year.

Jellyman, I had never heard of this difference between sets and seeds to make bulbing onions. I had always thought the sets would give me a big head start on seeds. I will do some more research this winter so I am ready to go next year. This year is my first veggie bed so I'm learning a lot.

Thanks to all for your input.

@Jellyman,

I understand that Candy is not daylight dependent...is that correct?

We always plant transplants in November and harvest in May. Typically Stockton yellows and reds. So I was wondering if I started from seed now and then transplanted in November...will that work? Or should I wait until February like yourself. I have heard great things about Candy...the onion that is..:)

Sets make perfectly fine onions - have used them for years. But they need to be planted early - like April.
Plant them about 2" apart and then pull every other one to use for scallions and the rest can be harvested for onions after the tops die down. For further info, try the allium forum.