Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Henwoman on January 06, 2011, 12:57
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I've always grown my onions, except for spring onions, from sets in previous years. This year I've bought onion seeds. Does anyone have an opinon about which method is best please?
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I've never had any success with onions from seed. My 150 or so onion plants made a jar of picked onions 2 years ago, whilst the sets, (Centurion), were the best I've ever grown, but I'm not giving up and trying again this year
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When do you plant your onion seeds if you only want average sized cooking not show onions?
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Have a look at this old thread...............and I'll move this into Grow Your Own
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=63142.msg723882#msg723882
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I've never had any success with onions from seed. My 150 or so onion plants made a jar of picked onions 2 years ago, whilst the sets, (Centurion), were the best I've ever grown, but I'm not giving up and trying again this year
Well, FWIW, I always grew Onions from sets and never had much success, and I had the opinion that growing them from seed was a PITA
Last year I got a couple of freebie Onion seed packets so I had a go. Best Onions I have ever grown, and very little hassle (although I do stuff in modules and pots all the time, so my idea of "not much hassle" may be seen as comparable to climbing the North face of the Eiger by others!)
I think I sowed them in a small seed tray and then pricked out to small modules (but I might have direct sown them in the modules).
When I planted out I untangled all the roots - I must have read that somewhere as normally I avoid root disturbance when planting out.
That's about it! After that I just added water ...
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So when do you sow them?
Sorry to hijack the post :blush:
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Now-ish - although last year I think I started them much later. I'll see if I have a note of when.
Edit: Looks like I sowed them on 14-Feb and pricked out to modules on 16-Mar
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So when do you sow them?
Sorry to hijack the post :blush:
I've recently sowed some Kelsae, which are grown by most people for exhibition, in the hope of getting some average onions.
This was the result of 2 x 35' rows of onion plants 2 years ago. The rest would not have qualified as spring onions.
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c182/G4IAR/DSCF1734.jpg)
I know it's me , otherwise there'd be no such thing as onion seed & exhibition onions.
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Well, FWIW, I always grew Onions from sets and never had much success, and I had the opinion that growing them from seed was a PITA
Last year I got a couple of freebie Onion seed packets so I had a go. Best Onions I have ever grown, and very little hassle (although I do stuff in modules and pots all the time, so my idea of "not much hassle" may be seen as comparable to climbing the North face of the Eiger by others!)
I think I sowed them in a small seed tray and then pricked out to small modules (but I might have direct sown them in the modules).
When I planted out I untangled all the roots - I must have read that somewhere as normally I avoid root disturbance when planting out.
That's about it! After that I just added water ...
Thats really interesting Kirsten. I had the same impression about seed onions from everything i'd read.
I have a pack of White sweet Spanish onions... i might give em a go then... :)
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Well, FWIW, I always grew Onions from sets and never had much success, and I had the opinion that growing them from seed was a PITA
Sorry, what does FWIW and PITA mean? I'm a bit thick when it comes to all the initials people use (there's another on a different thread - DW - anyone know what that stands for?)
I have tried (and failed) to grow onions from seed twice - first lot got eaten by slugs, last years were the size of pickled onions. My sets weren't much better to be fair - my largest were about half the size of a normal onion, my average was golf ball sized! But, I'm trying again this year...with both...I refuse to be beaten! ::)
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Well, FWIW, I always grew Onions from sets and never had much success, and I had the opinion that growing them from seed was a PITA
Sorry, what does FWIW and PITA mean? I'm a bit thick when it comes to all the initials people use (there's another on a different thread - DW - anyone know what that stands for?)
I have tried (and failed) to grow onions from seed twice - first lot got eaten by slugs, last years were the size of pickled onions. My sets weren't much better to be fair - my largest were about half the size of a normal onion, my average was golf ball sized! But, I'm trying again this year...with both...I refuse to be beaten! ::)
As a guess "For what it's worth" and "Pain in the ar..".
Re onion sets, I put mine in modules (7x12 i.e. 84 module trays) about the third week in January. They grow well indoors and I then put them outside in the modules, when they have shown reasonable growth, in a cold frame in February depending a bit upon the weather. I plant them out in April at the allotment and don't too much then apart from weeding.
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Well, FWIW, I always grew Onions from sets and never had much success, and I had the opinion that growing them from seed was a PITA
Sorry, what does FWIW and PITA mean? I'm a bit thick when it comes to all the initials people use (there's another on a different thread - DW - anyone know what that stands for?)
I have tried (and failed) to grow onions from seed twice - first lot got eaten by slugs, last years were the size of pickled onions. My sets weren't much better to be fair - my largest were about half the size of a normal onion, my average was golf ball sized! But, I'm trying again this year...with both...I refuse to be beaten! ::)
As a guess "For what it's worth" and "Pain in the ar..".
Ah yep, thanks, now you tell me, its obvious! Sat there for ages... ::)
I tried planting up half my sets last year but don't know if they were the larger ones or not - by the time I came to harvest them I'd forgotten whether the ones at the front or the back were from the modules... :unsure:
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[/quote]
Sorry, what does FWIW and PITA mean? I'm a bit thick when it comes to all the initials people use (there's another on a different thread - DW - anyone know what that stands for?)
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Thanks for being the brave one and stickin yer hand up. They had me sitting here scratching me head too! ::)
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The site policies do ask posters to avoid using text speak.
This is an example of why.
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Sorry, I had not thought of them as Text Speak (shows how stupid I am). I shall desist
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Thanks for being the brave one and stickin yer hand up. They had me sitting here scratching me head too! ::)
Glad I'm not the only one! :) Though like I said, once you're told, often it becomes obvious what they stand for, but sometimes you need someone to tell you or you spend ages trying to work it out! It's the abreviations for family members that confuse me most because people use so many different ones and often they aren't as obvious.
The site policies do ask posters to avoid using text speak.
This is an example of why.
Sorry, I had not thought of them as Text Speak (shows how stupid I am). I shall desist
No worries! I'm sure people who use forums like these all the time are used to them and take it for granted that people get it, but apart from the odd google search, pretty much the only forum I come on is this one. I use texts quite a lot but people I know don't use these abreviations, I've only ever seen them on the internet. And for people like my mum, who's dyslexic, they can be a nightmare so I do think avoiding using them is a good rule.
Back to the onions now... ;) :D
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I've seen worse, Kristen, but it does confuse some members - me included.
A bit off topic, but as we've touched on it, as for the family ones, I'm not a fan of those either. I think it's DS = darling or dear son, DH is the husband version etc.. The one that always gets to me though is obviously DD for darling daughter!
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The one that always gets to me though is obviously DD for darling daughter!
It is? Blimey Dear Dad ... but if you insist ... I promise to only call you Darling Daughter in future :D
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Thanks for all the info - really interesting to get replies from so many people.
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Last year was the first year growing from seed, I sowed on 17th Jan 2 small pots of Kamal Red and 4 small pots of Bedfordshire Champion. They were planted on 8th May and were the best onion crop I have ever grown, only 1 went to seed and very little white rot.
Same again this year but more red ones, plus I am trying shallots from seed..
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what happens to all the onion seedlings once they are germinated?
Do they go out into a coldframe, cold or frost-free greenhouse, or stay on windowledges :unsure:
I think some next stage info is required for all the first time onion seed sowers :)
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I've gone for frost free greenhouse.