Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Eblana on September 13, 2012, 21:15

Title: Best way to grow onions
Post by: Eblana on September 13, 2012, 21:15

Hi all,

I have always grown my onions on the flat but noticed that a few of the other lads on the plots grow theirs like potatoes on the top of drills.  They had great big onions while mine were still tiny (mind you mine caught up eventually).  Which is the best way to plant sets?

Title: Re: Best way to grow onions
Post by: gavinjconway on September 13, 2012, 21:47

These that you saw may have been a special mammoth type ... onions grow well on the flat.

Title: Re: Best way to grow onions
Post by: fatcat1955 on September 13, 2012, 22:45

If you have a lot of rain where you are , they probably do this to stop them rotting.

Title: Re: Best way to grow onions
Post by: Paul Plots on September 14, 2012, 02:34

Onion sets on slightly raised ridges might (as suggested) be a way of trying to minimise rot in wet seasons but how successful it is I've no idea.

Sets always seem hit and miss for me. Some years they are brilliant and others almost not worth bothering with. (I'm sure it's to do with the weather and something I do or don't do   ::)) Either way they are not great for storing.

How about experimenting with a trial? Plant some on the flat and some on ridges that way you could see what works best for you.  ;)

Title: Re: Best way to grow onions
Post by: MyAchingBack on September 15, 2012, 10:08

Quote from: Eblana on September 13, 2012, 21:15

Hi all,

I have always grown my onions on the flat but noticed that a few of the other lads on the plots grow theirs like potatoes on the top of drills.  They had great big onions while mine were still tiny (mind you mine caught up eventually).  Which is the best way to plant sets?

Same on our plots although it seems to be the Irish allotmenteers that do this. Is it something common to Ireland maybe?

Title: Re: Best way to grow onions
Post by: m1ckz on September 16, 2012, 07:08

i grew mine from seed this year ,,had a good crop too,started them off end of november

Title: Re: Best way to grow onions
Post by: Eblana on September 16, 2012, 09:39

Quote from: MyAchingBack on September 15, 2012, 10:08

Same on our plots although it seems to be the Irish allotmenteers that do this. Is it something common to Ireland maybe?

Could be an Irish thing alright, someone told me that because the land in the west of Ireland was so poor and rocky that the smallholders used to build up beds like these from seaweed etc.  I noticed yesterday that some of them are now growing everything this way.  I suppose it is a bit like raised beds without any surround :lol:

Edited to tidy up quote