The onions can be planted outside as soon as the soil can be worked, mid march maybe. The garlic too for that matter. As far as starting them inside, I have no advice, never tried. I also live in upstate NY, and I plant my garlic outside in October. Good Luck, Spring is right around the corner!!!

i have some onions started indoors for the first time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening by the Seat of my Pants

Hi. I'm a lurker here but couldn't resist this one. I'm in NE Ohio and last year I decided to do onions from seed and not plants. In late February in my cool basement I filled a shoebox with potting mix (Miracle Gro) and sprinkled Red Mars seed on the top and pressed them in lightly then dusted with a little more soil. Within a couple weeks the seedlings came up. I kept them in the shoebox until May just because I wanted the plants to be at least 1/2" wide before putting into the garden. Though they went in later than the purchased yellow onion starts, they matured quickly and were ready to pull at the same time. I was surprised and pleased that they grew as big as the plants I used to buy. I'll probably grow all my onions from seeds from now on. It was way simple. Good luck with yours!
Kris
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Wow. I kept wanting to try it buy m FIL told me it does not work. Now I have proof enough to try. I am excited that they matured faster, too. Off o plant my own. THanks

gardenmom2 - one nice thing by keeping them in the shoebox until early May, I was able to fortify them regularly with fish emulsion. They became quite sturdy and since they hadn't been mailed to me, there was no transplant shock when they hit the ground. I think that alone let them catch up to the mailed ones that had been planted 2-3 weeks earlier.
Kris

Here's a handy little tool you'll love - Grow Guide. That should let you know when to start things indoors, outdoors and transplant dates according to the first and last frost dates for your region. Google "frost dates" for your area and you should get a number of hits for your specific dates.