Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => The Show Bench => Topic started by: Mash Mad on December 27, 2010, 20:59
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Just for you all to get an idea about growing show onions, I sowed my kelsae onions on Christmas eve in heated propogators which are ticking away nicely. I also brought a growlight and had a go at making a first time growing chamber for them... 8) Its not quite finished yet as it needs supports to raise the light for when the plants get taller.
This is quite amatureish but it should do the job fine :)
I'll be putting them in the growing box, still with bottom heat, as soon as they've germinated, fingers crossed :)
and they'll be having 16 hours of light
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That looks brill :D :D :D
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Please keep us posted on the progress of your onions.
Light appears to be the secret to success with onions. With no light I leave mine until early February before sowing.
Do you need the heat once they are growing?
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Do you need the heat once they are growing?
I keep mine at 55 degrees untill early march then move them onto the greenhouse staging,which is just kept frost free.
Grown at that temperature, and with the low light levels of Jan and feb, its best to use a growlight to stop them becoming leggy.
I know that us gardeners usually say that things will catch up, but I think that large onions are an exception to that rule. Get the cultivation right and a Christmas sowing will allways outgrow one made a few months later.
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Aslong as you give them a bit of bottom heat until condtions are warm enough for them and keep them under the growing lights until there is more sufficent daylight they should be fine :) Im new to all of this so ive said only what i think is right....
I might have to make a bigger growing chamber or make it taller so i can house the plants till condtions are right.. :)
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Still waiting for the seeds to pop up through the soil, its been a week so far, I just have to wait and see....... :)
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Ive sown mine today under a lamp, how mcuh light do they want each day?
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Ive sown mine today under a lamp, how mcuh light do they want each day?
Now ive read off the NVS (National Vegetable Society ) website in medwyns aritcles that he has his lights on for 16 hours eachday until about the end of february which is what im having a go at, also do you mean a growing lamp or just an ordinary house lamp?
beacuse you most certenly need a growing light/lamp because the tube/bulb imitates natural daylight :)
heres a link to the site and aritcles and one that ive selected :).... its well worth a look loads of info on there :)
http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/medwyn-williams-vegetable-grow-show-21.html (http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/medwyn-williams-vegetable-grow-show-21.html)
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Thanks for the advice :D
Its just a normal house lamp i am using until i can afford an grow light :(
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You really need a growlight Jamie, as Mad Cat says the light spectrum given out by an ordinary bulb is all wrong. It' s way too far to the yellow end of the spectrum. I don't think you'll have a lot of success with a household one.
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Do you think itd be best if i just leave them natural sunlight and turn off the lamp?
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They shouldn't need full light until they germinate.
If you can I'd be inclined to find a well lit window sill & put the good old aluminium foil behind the seedlings to reflect the light. This can nearly double the amount of light, but of course it doesn't lengthen the day!
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I have currently got them under 2 skylights wrapped in foil, will that be enough do you think?
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I don't think so Jamie, think this has been discussed before. They really need to be in full light in a window to stand a chance.
It may seem bright to you, but your eyes adapt.
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Jamie, have a look at these if you dont want to spend too much on a light... :) i got the £22 one and post and packing was about £5 :) heres the links.....
http://www.growell.co.uk/p/5065/T5HO-Sunblaster-Propagation-Lights.html (http://www.growell.co.uk/p/5065/T5HO-Sunblaster-Propagation-Lights.html)
or this one.... which i might get for next year if its a success this year
http://www.growell.co.uk/p/8865/CFL-Hobby-Reflector-including-complete-kits-.html (http://www.growell.co.uk/p/8865/CFL-Hobby-Reflector-including-complete-kits-.html)
or this one...
http://www.growell.co.uk/p/5876/Sun-Mate-Grow-CFL-Reflector-including-complete-kits-.html (http://www.growell.co.uk/p/5876/Sun-Mate-Grow-CFL-Reflector-including-complete-kits-.html)
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The £22 light is great.... :) one of the seeds popped up on saturday so i bit the bullet and decided to put both the trays under the light... and now ive got 14 out of 30 though and there growing about half an inch a day!.... 8) looks like the rest will be though by tomorrow.. :)
If you get a light make a growing box like me....
you could do it the cheap way and buy a pvc storege box and line the sides with tin foil to optimise good light around inside, and attach the light to the lid.... make sure you buy a big one, (Which i should of realised) to fit your seed trays or heatedpropagator in and to house the plants when you pot them on as this is were they'll need to stay till around march...:)
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Thanks for all the advice mash mad, much apreciated :D :D :D
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Interesting post this one. Having tried the normal lights like Jamie, I found that the plants became 'leggy' looking for light. So I did a bit of tinternet research to see what I needed to do and it seems that the main source of light needed for growing is the blue light spectrum. The price of the grow lights was a bit more than I was prepared to pay and the area covered was very small, to get something to cover what I needed was a re-mortgage job. Anyway, I found a company that sold fluorescent tubes that only gave out the blue light spectrum so I ordered some 4ft tubes. They fit in an ordinary fluorescent light fitting and I made some up. This was last year and the results were really good. With a timer on them to come on an hour before and go off an hour after normal daylight hours, increasing the total time weekly, I had no leggy plants and had some of my best plants ever. I will be doing exactly the same again this year.
Jamie, when the onion seedlings and other bits I have promised you are ready, if you can manage to pick them up yourself, I will show you my set up and I will have a couple of tubes spare if you want to try them. If you can't pick them up, as I said before, don't worry I can drop them off for you.
Robbo.
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Thanks very much mate, i realy apeciate it :D Thanks for the advice aswell :D :D :D :D
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My onions are through :D
Ive been thinking, if just a normal lamp is too far up the yelow side of the spectrum, would it be possible to attach some blue plastic under the light so the onions would get blue light? :unsure:
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That won't work Jamie.
You can't make blue light that's not there. All you'd do is filter out the yellow and only let through the little blue there is in the first place.
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Oh ok :)
Im just trying to remeber the physics i did last year ::) :)
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Oh ok :)
Im just trying to remeber the physics i did last year ::) :)
I can remember it from 42 years ago!
But I also had the advantage of doing a 6 year student apprenticeship at Thorn Lighting. (Now deceased :( )
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Right, they have been growing away nicely for a while now and have all come through, they are all about 7cm high and looking realy healthy, they have just had natural light.
What is the next step, do they need potting onto there own individual pots?
Im dead proud of them so far, i think they have the potential to win the local show :D :D :D
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I have just pricked mine out into 3" pots of John Innes No 2 potting compost. They will be given twelve hours of light per day at about 55 deg f.
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how do you support the stems of the young plant? i'm looking into some heath-robinson affair so they're not toppling at the weak and spindly phase.