Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Rexmundi on April 01, 2013, 21:38
-
I put red and white onion sets into little fibre pots with compost 4 weeks ago. The plan was to give them a bit of a head start before planting them in the ground.
I don't have a greenhouse, cold frame or room for them indoors so just left them outdoors without any protection.
As you know the weather since has been particularly cold with snow and some quite severe frosts.
Basically I'm wondering if anyone knows if they are worth keeping and planting them in the ground as I've read that sets subject to frost are prone to bolting.
Any advice or information would be appreciated.
-
Get them in.
I usually get mine in in March and they are subject to quite a lot of frost.
Warm dry weather is more conducive to bolting, rather than cold.
-
I would plant them :) Last year mine went out quite early, were exposed to a bit of cold weather and we had a fair crop.
This year I was a little late buying them, but I popped mine into modules under cover a week or 10 days ago - they are already sending out roots and showing small signs of shooting. Now I'm unsure whether to plant out or wait until they have filled the modules with roots and plant out with a decent root ball.
I suppose I should hang on.
-
Think of onions as you would garlic. Garlic is super tough and is planted in the fall so it will overwinter to get it's roots going ready for spring. Onions are just as tough but planting can be delayed until Feb or March, whichever time you can start working the soil. If you're worried about rotting, mound the soil in rows to plant in so that excessive rain can run off.
Like garlic, onions too will overwinter to set seed for the next year, which shows how tough they are.