CERTIFIED ORGANIC SEED, 1 packet (100 seeds)
Allium cepa (112 days; long-day onions) If you love onions, like we do, and never want to be without... Dakota Tears onion is for you!! Dakota Tears is a yellow-skinned, firm fleshed storage onion with robust onion flavor. Bred in the 1980-90s by David Podoll, Dakota Tears is open-pollinated and continuously selected for vigor, size, long-term storability, disease and insect resistance. This onion will store all through the winter until your next crop of onions is harvested... No joke! Averaging 12 oz each with medium-thick necks. Dakota Tears was honored by Organic Gardening magazine as one of ten outstanding plants in their 2010 variety trials. It has successfully rivaled hybrid varieties in university-based variety trials! In 2016 we experimented with direct seeding our onions. The direct-seeded onions out-performed our transplants, producing bigger and better onions!
View our blog posts on how to grow healthier onions: Part 1 and Part 2. We also have a blog post and companion YouTube video on transplanting your onion seedlings!
See our recipe for tantalizing French Onion Soup!
You can also find our best advice on 'How to store onions for the long winter' here.
By purchasing this seed you are a part of the FREE THE SEED movement... This variety was bred on our farm and is registered as OPEN SOURCE through the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI). To learn more, click here.
Growing NotesFor transplant seedlings: sow indoors 6 weeks before desired transplanting date; Planting depth: 1/4 inch. Keep moist (but not soggy) when seeds are germinating. Avg. Days to Germ.: 7-10. Moderate moisture in the seedling stage. Transplant outdoors with 4 inch spacing between plants. Days to Maturity (after transplant): 112. For direct seeding: Direct seed 4-6 weeks before normal transplanting date; 6-10 seeds per foot in rows 18 inches apart or plant a double row (4 inches part, as pictured above) with rows 3 feet on center. Plant 1/4 inch deep; thin to 4 inch spacings, selecting for the strongest seedlings.