How to Harvest the Seed of a Red Onion

Saving seeds is a practice that farmers of previous times relied upon for future crops. When you collect, save and later plant seeds of heirloom or open-pollinated fruits and vegetables such as onions, you will be helping to keep these plants from disappearing from the gene pool. Check the variety of the red onion whose seeds you want to harvest because only a nonhybrid variety -- the red burgundy, for example -- will yield exactly the same onion as its parent plant.

Shoebox or other small box
Clippers
Cookie sheet
Plastic zipper storage bags

Instructions

- 1
  Allow your red onion plants to form flower spikes in late summer or fall.
- 2
  Pull onions and cut off the flower heads when they appear brown, dry and crunchy. Transfer them to shoeboxes or other boxes, leaving plenty of space and laying them in a single layer. Leave them in a cool, dark, dry place for two to three weeks.
- 3
  Shake the seeds into your box or gently rub the seed heads between your palms over the box to release all seeds. If you wind up with some of the chaff, or plant material that surrounds the seeds, that's fine.
- 4
  Pour all seeds and chaff onto a cookie sheet. Stand somewhere that isn't windy and gently blow on the seeds to separate them from the lighter chaff.
- 5
  Transfer seeds into plastic zipper bags and store them in the vegetable crisper of your refrigerator until you want to use them to grow more red onions.

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