[flitwickone]

these will be our first winter onions #
any tips for those who have knowledge
i. e do they bolt or is it a case of suck it and see  :blink:

[compostqueen]

I just planted some as I did so well with them last year and I hope I can repeat the success.  They store well too.  I planted mine on a raised bed made up of hardly any soil but quite a lot of manure and home made compost so it was very free draining. I fed them, when they showed signs of bulbing up, with chicken manure pellets.  They like water while they're getting established. 

[flitwickone]

many thx i shall do likewise and let you know what happens

[Coach]

None of mine have bolted, if they do just cut the heads off

[zazen999]

I love my Radar onion sets; just bought 200 yesterday and 100 are already in.

Put them in now, or the next few weeks; into raked beds. Then just leave them all winter, taking out weeds as and when you can. Any that pop out, just pop them back in. They will grow roots first, then in about a month, small shoots should appear.

In the spring, go round the outsides with your finger or a small hoe to loosen the soil, and give them a feed - a root veg type not a tomato type. Then water in. The loosening of the soil lets the water drain around the roots and lets the onion swell up nice and big.

As they bulk up, if any bolt; take the flower off and use those first. The more space between each onion the bigger they will grow [ideally] so if they are close together, take alternate ones out and leave the rest to grow on.

[beaker141]

I planted 70 radar sets on 5th Sept, come the 25th when I checked most had rooted and sprouted, in some cases a 3-4 inch sprout coming out of the soil.

I was mightly pleased. Any positions that havent sprouted in 2 weeks Im going to replant a spare set.

[Zippy]

Do you use a fertilzer on the bed for Radar or just plant into hoed bed and feed in spring?

[DD.]

As I said on another thread:

Re fertiliser (with an "s" unless you're American, Zippy!), my take on it in another thread:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=65837.msg752233#msg752233

We seem to have 3 threads running on winter onions, but merging them now would confuse the issue.

Could members please check what threads are currently running before starting a new one, quite often it is appropriate to pose a question on an exisiting thread, rather than creating a new one, which often serves to confuse.

[Zippy]

Thankz DD; no I'm not American - I'm a Hindu.