[shaun]

just wondering what you guys prefer i'm goin to have a go at seed for next year as what ive seen is they produce much better onions and there are loads more different types.and is it true that seed grown onions keep better ?
but i might order some sets as back-up no confidence yer see .

[muntjac]

onion sets for me .why waste time growing from seed.not heard those thoughts before mate

[Bigbadfrankie]

Hi Shaun I am trying both infact I have already put in some seed but nothing came up. But I am used to that, I have yet to find the art of growing from seed.
Mustard did ok but thats easy stuff to grow. Howard looks good. I am off to look at one this afternoon. Good luck with the seeds!!

[John]

I've heard seed-grown keep better and didn't have ttoo much trouble growing from seed. BUT it's a lot more fiddle. Cheaper though.

Sow into a seed tray and transplant into modules when large enough to handle, plant out the modules when large enough.

I go for autumn sets and spring seeds - hope that helps

[GrannieAnnie]

I usually grow from sets, as last time I tried seeds they didn't grow, and sets are easier!!!!!   but I have acquired a packets of seeds from somewhere, so I'll try those as well for next year

[DD.]

I can only speak from one experience of growing onions from seeds. I tried it last year. I chose Rijnsburger, I admit from the write up on the packet, as it was supposed to be a good cropper & storer.

The crop fell short of being called pathetic and what I stored only lasted a month or two before rotting.

It may have been the year, something in the soil........ anything and not due to the fact they were raised from seed, so I'm not really pointing the finger there.

However, fingers burned, this year I went back to sets, had a cracking crop of the largest onions I've ever grown.

Sets it will be for me from now on. That is until they fail & I swear I'll never grow from sets again!!  But that's gardening.

[Gwiz]

i did sets for this year, but although we got a lot of onions, they weren`t too big. we`re going to give em another go this autumm in raised beds like a freind on the same allotment....his were fantastic ( ratbag!  )

[ytyynycefn]

I tried both this year (my first year, so no clue about growing stuff) - sets were great, and I have a basket of nice "turbo" onions; the seeds were "Bedfordshire Champion" and have grown but are pretty small and pathetic looking.

I've just planted autumn sets, "electric" red onions and "senshuyu" japanese ones, and they have sprouted and look pretty good so far.

I was given some "Rijnsburger" seed, so will give it a go in spring, but out of choice will stick to sets now - the autumn ones were £1.49 for 50 off eBay, which seemed cheap enough!

[noshed]

I've just planted some sets - absolutely no idea what. Derek talked me into buying them in our site shed shop. Last year's sets worked quite well. I'm rubbish at growing stuff from seed so I think sets it is.

[Aunt Sally]

When we had our first allotment (20 years ago) we always used onion sets.  We dried them well and tied them into strings 'a la frech' and stored them in out garden shed.  They stored until we had finished them  

[shaun]

theres a chap a few plots down from me who grows his from seed and look great ,he grows his on the same area every year,loads of muck is double dug in now by hand then rotavated in the spring,this area must be 18" to 2' higher than the rest of the plot,he sows his seed around Christmas time indoors and plants out around may,
the types he grows are bedfordshire and robinsons giant and they are huge about the size of a good grapefruit.also he says that seed grown dont bolt as much as sets.

[DD.]

I was given some "Rijnsburger" seed, so will give it a go in spring, but out of choice will stick to sets now - the autumn ones were £1.49 for 50 off eBay, which seemed cheap enough!

You were ripped off!!!

£1.29 from my local nursery.

[DD.]

theres a chap a few plots down from me who grows his from seed and look great ,he grows his on the same area every year,loads of muck is double dug in now by hand then rotavated in the spring,this area must be 18" to 2' higher than the rest of the plot,he sows his seed around Christmas time indoors and plants out around may,
the types he grows are bedfordshire and robinsons giant and they are huge about the size of a good grapefruit.also he says that seed grown dont bolt as much as sets.

They may look great in the ground, but do they keep???

It's probably me that got an inherent, uncomfortable feeeling, about trying to grow the biggest, the best etc... whilst a lot of the world are starving.

I accept what God's good ground gives me. If it's not good this year, it may well be next.  I get a good crop of X this year, I look forward to Y next.

[jennyb]

have just put in my first attempt at japanese onion sets.. cross my fingers and wait i guess..

any tips/advice?

[Alec Powell]

just wondering what you guys prefer i'm goin to have a go at seed for next year as what ive seen is they produce much better onions and there are loads more different types.and is it true that seed grown onions keep better ?
but i might order some sets as back-up no confidence yer see .

I think you have got to be keen to grow from seed.
W. Robinson & Son (Seeds & Plants) Ltd
sell seed for mammoth onions and one of the guys on our site grows them.
However it seems like too much work for what he gets out of it, (Am I getting lazy?)
Mind you they are BIG
I'll stick to sets I think - I know where I am with them.