Where to find bulk onion sets

Hi,

I am trying to find some 32lb bags of bulk onion sets for planting in GA in the next few weeks. I could use a bag of red, white and yellow. Intermediate day ones, or maybe short day as I am in Atlanta. I found a few places with them for some real high prices, or out of stock. If I recall they should be about $30 for a 32lb bag.

Hope you can help,
Mark Capps

That must be a little high. They sell in the stores for about 79¢ a pound.
Basically a spring item here.

Hi,

Yeah they seem to be hard to find for fall planting.

Still looking,
Mark

Let's see....I've seen onion sets locally at my local Ace Hardware, the farm co-op, and the feed store. Even though Atlanta probably doesn't have farmers, they might have feed stores on the outskirts? Our farm co-op even had some organic onion sets (those went very fast)!

Sets are only available as long day storage onions and they usually are available in spring. Most onions grown in Georgia are south of I20 and are short day onions grown in winter. http://www.ipmcenters.org/cropprofiles/docs/gaonions.html. Sets are used mostly for spring onions/green onions/scallions so folks seldom use more than a pound. You might check with a local feed and seed and see if they can order a bulk amount for you. Most bulk suppliers will not retail .
Here a few companies that deal in large quantities; http://www.hpsseed.com/sp.asp?c=414 http://www.dutchvalleygrowers.com/wholes_bulkbulbs.html http://www.hollandbulbfarms.com/itemdesc.asp?item=Stuttgarter-Yellow-Onion-Sets&cat=onion_set_seeds&ic=11793 http://www.magicvalleygrowers.com/onionsets/

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I tried those guys last week and they dont have any till spring:( I am running an organic farm and looking for about 4 bushels of sets.

Mark

Good luck: As noted sets are long day storage onions. Grown in Northern climates in late summer, made to go dormant at less than one inch diameter, harvested and processed for for shipping in winter or early spring. They do not have enough shelf life to hold through the summer. Your best bet is to find a supplier that ships early, but I expect December to be the earliest.

We have a local seed dealer that deals in large quantities of veggie seed. They have sets by the bushel in the spring. I don't know where they get them.