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I have some bunching onion (green onion) seeds. I have been trying to grow them indoors in small 1x1 inch pods. I also tried to plant them directly outdoors in my raised bed. I had no success so far in getting them to germinate. Any pointers on how to germinate bunching onions would be appreciated. I am in the San Francisco / Bay Area.

JStorage
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  • How do you know the seeds are good? – Graham Chiu May 01 '16 at 23:26
  • I am hoping at least a few of the ones in the packet are good they all can't be bad (at least in my experience) – JStorage May 01 '16 at 23:33
  • How old is the seed? How long have you waited? What temperature is the soil at where the seeds are? I'm trying leeks this year, and they are among the slowest to germinate of my various plants. – Ecnerwal May 02 '16 at 00:57
  • I purchased the seeds last year and it has been over 3 months since I planted them. Indoors I put them on a heating mat so temp must be warm. Everything germinated. Outside temp ranges between 50s at night to 80s Fahrenheit – JStorage May 02 '16 at 01:44
  • Onions are pretty hardy and I've grown leeks and chives from seed, but not onions. The onions I have don't make seeds on top, they make baby onions! Perhaps your seeds are bad. Do you have a date on when they were harvested? I put my seeds in medicine jars and put the date of harvest on them with a Sharpie. ALSO, they may not germinate if it's too cold, they might wait for a warmer series of days, 50-60F or so daytime temps. – Bulrush May 03 '16 at 12:59

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I can answer how I grew mine. I collected the seeds from one that I planted from the supermarket. In mid summer I scattered the seeds onto some potting mix in a raised bed (an old bath), lightly covered it with more mix, and then spread black weed mat over it to protect from birds as well as increase the humidity level.

The seeds germinated in less then two weeks.

Onions germinating

Graham Chiu
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  • I have seen a small portion of my seeds germinate to what you show in your picture. Few days later these disappear (which may be a different problem from not germinating at all). – JStorage May 02 '16 at 19:55
  • So, not animals if it's happening inside. Maybe damping off or something. Try again with some flats filled with potting mix, sprinkle the seeds on top, and then cover lightly with vermiculite. – Graham Chiu May 03 '16 at 04:01