CropsBulb Onion › Red Zeppelin

Red Zeppelin
Bulb Onion in the US

Red Zeppelin is another excellent red maincrop onion, best started indoors. This variety is a reliable performer, yielding beautiful, dark red bulbs that keep well.

FlavourStoring
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Sow
Plant out
Harvest
Sow Plant out Harvest

Sow window for Bulb Onion generally, zone 6.

Buy Red Zeppelin seeds

Partner retailers. If you buy through these links we may earn a small commission. It never costs you more.

How to grow it

Now, getting these started from seed is the way to go, as you rarely see them as plug plants. The key is timing, and that really depends on your USDA zone. If you're in a colder spot like Zone 3 or 4, you're looking at April or May. Zones 5-7 can sow February to April, while Zones 9-10 can go as early as January or even late in the year. Sow seeds about half an inch deep, either indoors in trays for transplanting later, or directly into the ground once the soil warms up. Give them about an inch spacing in the rows to start with.

If you started your seeds indoors, once they're big enough to handle, about three or four inches tall, you'll want to prick them out and give them a bit more space in their trays. Then, before they go into the ground permanently, you've got to harden them off for a week or two – gradually getting them used to the outside weather, you know. Plant them out about four to six inches apart in rows that are a foot apart, once all danger of hard frost has passed for your area.

Full Bulb Onion guide →

More Bulb Onion varieties

Track your Bulb Onion from packet to plate

Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.

Tony C Smith
Tony C Smith

Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 3 September 2026.