They shouldn't be squidgy or rely soft. They tend to keep there more harder feel to them as when you first bought your onion sets. All I do is place them lightly into the soil about half the bulb under half showing and leave them, They soon root and then start to show a green shoot from the top. Then after summer, early winter they are 3 or 4 times the size and ready to pull back out. very simple and not much to do for them, just dont let the soil get too dry over hot summers for long periods.