[scabs]

I'd like to pop a few in next month to over-winter and wanted some advice.

I have ordered White Lisbon Winter Hardy for the spring onions, but can anyone recommend a Japanese variety?

Also, should I be looking at sets or seed - the books seem to differ in opinion... 

[lotty lil]

Hi Scabs, I grow onions every year,and usually get a good crop.I have tried the japanese varieties but I dont feel they perform any differently to the standard type.
I planted Radar sets last november and they overwintered well, but some of them suffered rot due to the amount of rain we have had.
I planted Hercules,Sturon and Centurion in April and have just harvested a fantastic crop,which I feel was due to a great tip I heard on a gardening programme from an 'old-boy' allotmenteer,plant your sets on ridges(-wish I had known about this before I planted the Radar!)Just got to string them all up now!

[scabs]

Thanks Lotty Lil, will those three varieties overwinter though?

[DD.]

I doubt you'll be able to get them this time of year, let alone over winter them.

This is what I'm doing this year:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=35584.msg521113#msg521113

I've made a note this time, as I'm usually late and it's just whatever's left. This will enable me to compare.

[scabs]

Thanks DD, that's really useful I'll give them ago.

There's a few on eBay doing seed but not found sets yet.

[DD.]

They don't show them mail order on their web site, but I know they do spuds mail order.

May be worth giving them a bell, being family run, you may not get a sharp intake of breath followed by " sorry, that's not company policy, sir".

[madcat]

which I feel was due to a great tip I heard on a gardening programme from an 'old-boy' allotmenteer,plant your sets on ridges(-wish I had known about this before I planted the Radar!)

I think the great crop was due to your green fingers, not the ridges!  Credit where credit's due.  

I heard the same tip and decided to try it last winter as my japanese onions were going in a bed that tends to be rather damp and I didn't want them rotting off.  One row on a ridge and one on the flat, next to each other.  The ones on the flat did much better - the ones on the ridge pushed themselves out and had to be replanted, didn't swell as well and generally were 'poor doers'.  This year, I'm giving up ridges.  

[scabs]

I just rang them and sure enough, they have Radar sets (as well as three other varieties, only one of which I remember the name of: Shakespeare)

£3.49 per kilo... I'm guessing that's a lot of sets.

[scabs]

Update.

50 radar and 50 Electric

Under a fiver all in.

That'll do.

[DD.]

£3.49 per kilo... I'm guessing that's a lot of sets.

I got 300 for £3.28, just under a kilo.

By comparison 100 from T & M would cost £5.59 plus £4.45 postage = £10.14 - so about half their price.

[scabs]

I got 300 for £3.28, just under a kilo.

Does that include postage? When I rang, they said P&P on a kilo was £4.41!

[DD.]

No - it's local to me - I picked them up.

[janet12000]

Heaven only knows what I am planting for my first attempt at overwinter onions!
I got them from Wilkinsons and they say nothing on the pack apart from plant between September and December. 
I got 50 red sets and 50 white sets for 4 quid.

[rem858]

wyevale garden ctrs have onoin  sets in now radar/ shensu/plus a few other types

[finty22]

does anyone start them off in paper pots just wondering

Mel