Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: potatogrower on June 25, 2010, 10:53
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Hi,
I have been growing red onions for 2 years and realized they grow quite small. I am not sure if red onions only grow small and not big like white onionsor my technique is all wrong. I grow from bulbs rather than seeds and push them into the ground so the top tip is visible. is that right? i got a book on growing your own food and it seems to just push the bottom 3rd of the bulb only.
How do you grow yours and what variey of red or white onions grow the biggest?
i have passion to grow but missing the little detailed practical understanding of growing :(
Mani
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I always found the same....they just do not grow as big as the ordinary ones, I don't bother with them now :(
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I plant mine very early in soil with some good compost in it, that seems to help. My first lot went in last November and were a good 6" tall by Christmas. I did loose some during the deep freeze but the survivors are now very big! In comparison, the ones I planted in Feb/March to fill the gaps are still very small and not showing signs of getting any bigger.
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i agree with mumofstig this is my first year growing veg i planted about 100 redbarons and 120 white onions and im having trouble stopping red barons from bolting although i now know they are prone to this these were grown from sets so next year i will grow a line of them and that will be it
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I plant mine very early in soil with some good compost in it, that seems to help. My first lot went in last November and were a good 6" tall by Christmas.
aelf, were these proper 'overwintering' onion sets or the ordinary sets that are usually planted in spring?
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Hi Mum, no, these were cheap n cheerful onion sets from my local DIY shed :)
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wilko my preferred supplier ::) :D doesn't stock them til after Christmas...shame......... :(
I'll have to go and look in Been & Queued :ohmy:
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That's the place! they were fresh delivered when I bought them - not even on the shelves :)
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A lot of manure and watering will make them nice and big .
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i think next year i will try and grow white onions. Anyone tried growing from seeds?
the first time i tried from seeds they didn't grow well. to be honest i just dropped a seed every 7" and thought "that was easy" but not much grew and hardly anything onion looking that was worth cooking :unsure:
mani
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i think next year i will try and grow white onions. Anyone tried growing from seeds?
the first time i tried from seeds they didn't grow well. to be honest i just dropped a seed every 7" and thought "that was easy" but not much grew and hardly anything onion looking that was worth cooking :unsure:
mani
I grow red and white onions from sets and seed; and have to say I prefer seed.
I find sets bolt and you have no idea how they were stored until you got hold of them. ALot just never take off properly.
I sow into modules, a pinch at a time, and plant out as soon as the risk of frost is past and generally leave them to it. I grew a load last year sown in August, and grown at the lottie in plenty of sand under a cloche and am eating those now....
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I'm wondering if my Autumn planted onions are going to get any bigger?
I've not watered them directly for a couple of weeks (worried about rot) but other crops in the same raised bed have had water. The leaves are still mostly green but the onions are on the surface, dry, outside skins are forming and they're not much bigger than a golf ball!!!!
I need the room soon for brassicas and if this is all I get I'm sticking to just shallots!
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Vietta, have you fed them?
About a month ago my overwintered ones were no bigger than a golf ball but I gave them a good drench with seaweed feed then scattered growmore granules around. They are now at least tennis ball size and a few nearly as big as a grapefruit!!
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I've harvested my overwintered onions already; you need to loosen the soil round them in the spring, give them a good watering if it is dry and they should swell up nicely.
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My overwintered onions are now being used. They have really swelled up in the last 3 weeks. I was a bit dissappointed by how small they were at the start of the month but they are reasonable now. The reds are smaller than the white though, both sown from sets.
My spring sown ones are a different story. All the reds are tiny and have all produced flower heads which I have removed. The whites are doing ok. Strange - same soil, same sun, feed, water etc. It is a shame as I really like red onions.
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Solway, I have fed and watered them now and hope they plump up!! Thanks.
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i started to have flower heads on mine too which i broke off. I thought the odd weather we have had with snow etc that they may have got confused with heat etc hence flowering already when they are small. if i grow white onions from seeds in august in loose compost, then from your personal experience what indication do i use to judge when they are ready to plant outside? for example out of the tray i pull one out what do i need to looks for that its ready to sow outside, does a bulb begin to form?
sorry about the questions. :wub:
Mani
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I put in sets from Wilco last October - one packet each of white, red and yellow. The yellow are mostly good large orange sized, red nearly as big, whites are very mixed - a few tennis ball sized, most the size of a golf ball or smaller. The tops have fallen over, and I've dug a few. The flavour of the whites is excellent, but I don't know if I'll bother with them next year. The garlic (a friend brought heads back from the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival) is doing great, but not quite ready for another week or so.
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i thought my garlic was looking great then today found its looking too good! turns out they are spare onions i just stuck in the bed. garlic must not have made it through the winter snow
bit sad I was looking forward to fresh garlic. silly mark!
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garlic has grown excellent too. 8)
last 2 years me and my dad were just putting them in the ground around Feb/Mar but when the green died back and bug them out they were just round single bulbs. This year did some asking around with some pro's and they said they survive the cold winter and need to be in the ground from Nov onwards, now few weeks back dad dug them up and we have something we can call "Garlic" :lol:
Just a quick question the garlic flowers at the top with a little tail sticking from the top and inside are very small bulbs, can this be grown in the ground as a single lot or are they pretty useless? has anyone used these and grown garlic from them ?
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garlic has grown excellent too. 8)
last 2 years me and my dad were just putting them in the ground around Feb/Mar but when the green died back and bug them out they were just round single bulbs. This year did some asking around with some pro's and they said they survive the cold winter and need to be in the ground from Nov onwards, now few weeks back dad dug them up and we have something we can call "Garlic" :lol:
Just a quick question the garlic flowers at the top with a little tail sticking from the top and inside are very small bulbs, can this be grown in the ground as a single lot or are they pretty useless? has anyone used these and grown garlic from them ?
Those are called 'bulbils' and you can grow from them, but I think they need an extra year to make a split garlic head.
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i think next year i will try and grow white onions. Anyone tried growing from seeds?
I have always grown from Sets in the past, and the results have been mediocre. This year I grew from seeds in small modules (about 1" square), teased out the roots when I planted them, and Boy! they look like the real thing. Not had a single one bolt yet (and Summer's don't come much drier than we've had this year) so I shall be going the seed route in future.
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I agree with Kristen, this is the first year of trying from seed and they are looking great far better than the sets. Sowed Kamal Red and Bedfordshire Champion on 17th Jan and planted out 8th May, will do the same next year if alls well with this years crop.
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I've grown red and white overwintered this year, and both have done very nicely, am lifting some now, and have reds (will have to look back for variety) the size of grapefruit, and the white (Radar) about the same.
My spring planted ones are smaller so far, but coming on, the Red Barons aren't tennis ball sized so far though...
Grew some Bedfordshire champion and Kelsae too from seed over winter, and put out in the spring, and they've done well too.
Phill :) :)
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I've always planted setts in early spring and all the whites seem to do well. However reds always tend to go to seed and not store well.
Mission for this year is to try and find a successful red that will do well round here from seed or sett.
aelf where they reds by anychance and if so which variety? ;) ;)