Possible, If you have 4 months growing season. I have not grown onions lower than Z6 so no experience. Stokes carries quite a few storage varieties with less tha 120 DTM. http://www.stokeseeds.com/category.aspx?CategoryID=98 as does Veseys http://www.veseys.com/us/en/store/vegetables/onionsseed/onionseed

Our frost-free season is around 90 days, but we could probably get at least another 3 weeks of good growing season by planting prior to last frost, and harvesting after first frost - onions look to be relatively frost tolerant. I'm just curious if anyone else is doing / has done it, and am finding nothing about it online - everything I have found indicates they have to be started indoors, and I don't have the space for that.

Direct seeding onions is difficult but I have done in Z6. Biggest problem is spacing. You almost have to overplant and thin to get a good stand. You can direct sow as as the ground thaws out and is workable. On the other you can start in a cold frame which can be as simple as a tray in the ground ina sunny sheltered spot and covered in glass or clear plastic. I plant 1000 -1500 seeds in 3 x 3 foot space. If you just need 50 or less plants, you plant them in a 6 inch pot sitting on a sunny window sill.

We normally plant 600 sets. and my seed starting space is already spoken for by the stuff we truly can't direct seed (tomatoes and such). Good to know about overplanting - is the germination rate affected by temperature?

It's not too hard to test. In addition to proceeding with your onion set plans, also sprinkle some seed directly in a small section of your garden and cover them with a light layer of soil. When up, thin them and treat them as you do the sets and see how they compare when mature. WRT variety, Copra is a nice large and sweet storage onion.

Travellinjess; I have tried growing onions from direct seeding in the past in your zone. The problem is to seed them when they will amount to something, the germination is so slow that the weeds beat them, and it is almost impossible to find them when they do germinate. I start mine indoors March 31st, for a transplant May 15th I harvest about 2nd to 3rd week in august for storage onions. You can get one of those 10"X20" trays with 12 inserts and can grow enough transplants to provide you with a couple of hundred pounds of storage onions! once they germinate they are very tough, and you could move them outside in days and bring them in at night. I cut the tops a few times, and it causes them to bulb out, and by transplant time they have a good root system and a 3/16" bulb on some of them. I then make a furrow come

This is great info - thank you, Chic. I may play with ways to try and raise the soil temps. I don't mind growing from sets, and to be honest, the cost difference is not much, but am really curious about direct sowing. I really dislike starting plants at all - curious small children and cats, combined with limited space, makes it frustrating at best.

I have direct sown onion seeds with good results my success I think is that I use raised garden beds and the soils warms up faster in those .I live 2 hrs east of Edmonton Alberta basically zone 3.

Are you having a real late spring this year? -21C in our area last night I'm late starting seeds ( in flats) this year I can see that a raised bed would be a big help, but I usually grow about 6 different varieties and about 200-300 lbs per year so I need a lot of ground. This year will be different as my seed order has been delayed because of the covid 19 problem we'll see?? Chic.

If you have been gardening in the same space for some years, you may have some pretty weed free sections. One of those is the best place to direct sow onions; so you have the least weed competition and you seedlings will then be easier to find and thin. Then sow them as early as you can work it.

Thanks for that advice Old Dutch, but believe me In my area I'm lucky to get a fast growing radish up before it is smothered by weeds it seems the more fertile your garden becomes the more weeds.When I transplant my onions (from seed ) I plant them through black plastic with drip irrigation, and those weeds seem to sneak up the spot where the transplant is so I still have weeds though controllable. I know I don't have a part of my garden I could direct seed with out a struggle with weeds. Cheers Chic.

Sorry Chic, I have been working on the same small garden space since 1981; so the resident weed seed population here has been thinned quite a bit. Eventually the weed population thins. My biggest problem is wild purslane and that only after it heats up in the summer. That and garlic chives...

Don't be sorry, I'm sure a lot of my weed problem is because at the age of 80 I still plant too much garden! and unlike years ago I don't have the stamina or inclination to weed like I used to. My worst weeds are pig weed, thistles and many others that I don't know the name of. We are located at 51 degrees latitude and at 3000 feet elevation and have very cold winters but the little beggars don't winter kill. We live on 12 acres, and have large weed field. all around our property. This season I think I will shut down one of my garden plots and cover with black plastic for the season to kill weeds. If I live long enough I should be able to get a handle on it. I do have one variety of chives that self seed but so far have them under control. My garden is about 10 years old at this spot, and started out with less weeds by far than I have now! I think some one up there is telling me to cut back to a few manageable raised beds???

Well Old Dutch take care in these trying times. Chic.

HI Chic,

So many of the weed seeds will lay in the ground for years. Just one year's bumper crop of weed seeds can undo years of diligence. I can tell you that from personal experience!