onion seedlings and cold

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jambop

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onion seedlings and cold
« on: February 14, 2017, 21:23 »
Hi My onion seedlings are just through and outside in a cold frame on a south facing wall. The other night it was quite frosty and the temp got quite low. I don't think it was much less than about 6C in the cold frame that is not cold enough to set them bolting when planted out later on in the year is it ?

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Ivor Backache

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Re: onion seedlings and cold
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2017, 10:43 »
I would love to have your 6C in the night time. I am lucky to have that in the day. Currently I have 30 winter onions planted in the allotment and they always grow OK. I always thought that bolting was more of an 'insufficient watering' during summer, but I stand to be corrected.
My main crop onions are still on the windowsill, but need to be transplanted. I use pop bottle cylinders for protection.

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New shoot

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Re: onion seedlings and cold
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2017, 11:17 »
I think they will be fine as well.  Sets are more prone to bolting, but I thought it was down to onions feeling they had done their first season and it was time to flower.  This can be set off be periods of cold, following warm ones, or other erratic weather

Seed grown ones seem to be able to cope with things and realise they are in season 1 so just fatten up.

I could well be wrong as well, but I rarely water onions and haven't noticed this leading to any more or less bolting, though possible smaller onions. Its not enough of an issue for me to overcome my laziness  :lol:

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mjg000

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Re: onion seedlings and cold
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2017, 22:55 »
It seems to me that the watering..... over or under.... is the vital thing in success with onion seedlings.  I worry, am I drowning them or leaving them too dry?  At the moment I am putting water in the tray underneath if I think they need some feed in the water, otherwise I spray (quite a lot) to keep some sort of equilibrium.  It never feels right, I pick the trays up to try and gauge how heavy they are.  I am sure it was easier before I had to think about it!

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harry

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Re: onion seedlings and cold
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2017, 09:03 »
I was told by a senior member on our allotments that overwatering caused problems with onions. Since taking his advice I've had good crops ;)
Hurray finally retired
two plots now 31A and 35A

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sunshineband

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Re: onion seedlings and cold
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2017, 14:54 »
I am keeping my babies under cover until they have three or four leaves, and like mgj100 "weigh" the tray to gauge whether they need any water or not. I reckon they have enough food to keep going for another couple of weeks or so, and after that it'll be a weekly light dose.

Don't want them too "soft" as they will be going outside in the big coldframe after that hardened off  a bit of course) They should then stand up to any low temps at night I reckon
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