Red Baron Red Onion

Hybrid Status

open pollinated

For orders placed by February 21, 2025, this item will ship on our regular shipping schedule, starting in late March with the warmest states and finishing by early May. Orders placed after February 21, 2025 will be shipped later, and in the order in which they were received. We cannot ship this item any earlier; we regret that we cannot honor any requests to do so.

Sets

Approx. 100-130 onion sets per pound; 80-100 shallot sets per pound.

Sets ship from our warehouse during our regular potato shipping season in April.

Onions

All the varieties we list are suitable for northern growers. If you live farther south, note our latitude specifications at the end of each description.

• Long-day: Must be north of 36° latitude, though some long-day types perform best north of 40°. These onions need 14-16 hours of sun a day to trigger bulb formation. May not perform well in continually hot soil temps.
• Intermediate-day: Also called day-neutral onions, generally need 12-15 hours of daylight to bulb. Some can do well in parts of the upper southern U.S. all the way up through Maine. Others are best for mid-latitudes only (35-40°). All intermediate-day onions in our catalog have performed well repeatedly in our Maine trials.
• Short-day: Suited for the South, below latitude 36°, bulbing when the day length measures between 10–12 hours. We don’t offer seed for short-day varieties.)

About 200-250 seeds/g, 5,700-7,000 seeds/oz.

Growing Onions

Shallow rooted, onion require rich weed-free soil and consistent water. All other factors being equal, onions grown from seedlings will grow bigger and resist disease better than set-grown onions.

• Planting: Plant seedlings and sets in spring as soon as soil is workable (onion plants come with planting directions). Onions survive light frosts.
  • Seedlings: Set seedlings out in shallow trenches 1–2" deep. Plant 6–8" apart, with 1–2' between rows.
  • Sets: Plant onion sets 3" apart in rows 1' apart. Thin to 6" apart as they grow (or plant them 4–6" apart if you don’t want to thin).
• Growing: Mulch when they are 1' tall. During the season, pull any plants that begin to bolt and use them as scallions. It’s a good idea to sidedress once or twice a season, especially close to summer solstice.
• Harvest: After half the onion tops fall, push over the remainder and harvest within a week.
• Curing: Field-cure in the sun about 10 days until dry, covering with a tarp in wet weather. In the event of extreme heat or prolonged damp conditions, we recommend sheltered curing in a well-ventilated barn or greenhouse. Curing is essential for long storage.
• Storage: Store cured onions in mesh sacks in a cool dry well-ventilated place, periodically removing sprouting or rotting bulbs. Ideal storage conditions are temperatures at 32° with humidity of 60–70%. If you can’t do that, work to get a total number of 100. For example, at temperatures from 50–55°, humidity should be 45–50%. In spring, put your remaining onions in the fridge to extend storage until your new crop is ready.

Note: Onion seed is short-lived. Retest 1-year-old seed before using. Discard anything older.