Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: New shoot on January 02, 2022, 15:39
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New year and the first things I sow every year are some onions for growing into the biggest ones I can manage. It is a slow process, but it is a routine for me and I know for a lot of others on here. Having said that I am playing catch up this year as they are not sown yet and I have just discovered I am out of Globo seeds :ohmy: Never mind, I have others ;)
Checklist before you start:
Have seeds that are designed for early sowing
Have a plan for a bright, cool but frost free area or areas to grow them on until they are ready to plant out
Have lots of patience - the seedlings take a long time to get going and do a fair impression of chives for quite some weeks.
Last years thread is here for reference.
https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=133954.0
Now I just need to get some compost in a small seed tray and in to warm, but it is persisting down right now. Maybe a job for tomorrow.
This is also a thread that will run for later sowings of onions for main crops and the like :)
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I was just waiting for you to start this thread, to remind me :lol:
I have some Ailsa Craig seeds, plus some Bridger, which can be Autumn or Jan/Feb sown. (Obviously I forgot to sow those in Autumn ::))
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Yup :lol: It is my fault and now everyone has to get the seed box out :lol: :lol: :lol:
I have Ailsa Craig for my early ones. There are some Red Herald left from last year, which I will sow later.
The Bridger sound interesting and would suit my somewhat erratic seed sowing habits as well :blush:
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I fancy growing what l call Spanish onions , large , sweet ones.
Any suggestions for good varieties to go for ? . :)
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I fancy growing what l call Spanish onions , large , sweet ones.
Any suggestions for good varieties to go for ? . :)
Simple!
https://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/Vegetable-Seeds-1/Onion-Shallot-Seed_2/Onion-Yellow-Sweet-Spanish-Veg-Seeds.html
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That’s it !
Thank you ! :D
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I am giving myself a break from the giants of the Onion world this year. No real reason, just have enough other things to fit in really.
I shall probably be sorry later in the year when I only have modest sized ones, but that just means I shall be more keen next year :lol:
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set my Globo today newshoot :D hope they grow fingers crossed still waiting for rest of my onion seed to arrive from Browns trying exhibition and Ambition [shallots] [Dt Brown] matador shallots also sowing a variety called Hytech all [Moles seeds]
and I'm growing yellow sweet Spanish comfreykid [DT Brown] I haven't finished yet also on my list to grow are santero mammoth red Paris silverskin and 5 spring onion seed varieties [Kings] and we always grow Turbo sets
may be I mite have gone a bit OTT John :lol: :lol:
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Alisa Craig onions sown on 3rd Jan :)
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Heated prop or just in bag on windowsill?
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Heated prop or just in bag on windowsill?
Low tech option of a bit of cling film loosely covering a mini seed tray :)
It was an old out of date pack, so I sowed loads expecting poor germination. You know what is coming next don’t you :lol: Yup, I have many, many onions :)
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I sowed some onion seeds in modules on the 1st Jan, and most have come up and are about an inch high. They are on a window sill indoors. Can I put the module trays into the greenhouse to make sure they get enough light and to continue to grow until ready to plant out, or is it too cold for them still?
This is the first time growing onions from seed having only ever grown onions from sets which I plant in autumn. I would have thought these seeds should be ok outside, now that they have germinated, or is that completely wrong?
Thanks.
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My greenhouse is unheated so I don’t put them out there until February at the earliest. Then they go into a mini plastic greenhouse, inside the glass greenhouse.
You need to keep the seedlings frost free, so the windowsill might be best. I use a bit of tin foil round the back of them to reflect the light from the window.
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A gardening friend of ours sent me a packet of onions Showmaster [Marshalls] to try going to get my wife to sow them tomorrow a variety we haven't grew before
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Golden Bear and Santero (4 per module) + a few single Exhibition, Giant and Mammoth Red sown. I'll be sowing some Red Spark late next month so they don't need too much cossetting as I've found they're not keen on the cold.
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I’m in with a small pit of red onion seedlings I was given by a friend yesterday, he’s been sent hem to trial from the National Vegetable Society they come via Medwyn Williams & are a trial so no name as yet ! :D. On the back of that my friend is putting red onions back in our clubs show, so I offered to sponsor it. I’ll let you know how they on.
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I've sown onions in very small (plug size) modules. The leaves are about 4" long but very spindly. I think that they need more nutrition because they only have about a cubic inch each. I'm in Devon, so it's a fairly mild climate. Is it too early to plant them out to their final location? Thanks.
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I’d pot them into bigger modules or 3” pots, not sure on your weather conditions but still seems a bit early to me.
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Hmm, that would be a heck of a lot of work. I may take the chance, try to warm up the earth a bit first and use some fleece. I'll report back.
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Late start this year, these Ailsa Craig were sown on the 1st February, germination could have been a little better, so I might have to sow a few sets extra next month to bulk out the harvest.
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When do people usually plant out?
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When do people usually plant out?
It depends on the weather. You need to avoid frosts and cold snaps if you can. Mine usually go out in late April/early May. They are in the unheated greenhouse and will graduate to the cold frame, but we are forecast cold nights at the moment. I'll admit I am a bit cautious with onion plants, but they take so long to raise, it is such a shame to see them hit by bad weather.
I do feed with a dilute liquid feed while they are waiting to go out. That makes big difference and stops them going lanky or pale looking.
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These guys will be going in the ground tomorrow, they're desperate...
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These guys will be going in the ground tomorrow, they're desperate...
Yes they do look like they are ready to break out of those trays. Nice plants though. Fingers crossed for a good crop :)
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These guys will be going in the ground tomorrow, they're desperate...
Yes they do look like they are ready to break out of those trays. Nice plants though. Fingers crossed for a good crop :)
Yep, I normally would have potted them on already but they were sown late so I guessed I'd get away with leaving them in the tray.
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Mine have been out for a couple of weeks now and looking good :)
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Progress picture :)
I had some onions from sets as well. They are already finished and the biggest bulbs were only the size of my seed grown ones, which are still going strong.
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I lifted my set-grown ones on Saturday. They had very little root growth left and a few had white/basal rot starting, unfortunately I found the same on the ones I grew from seed :(
That means I've no beds that are free of disease, so this will be the last year of trying to grow big onions. I'll just grow more bunching onions in my garden.
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I lifted my set-grown ones on Saturday. They had very little root growth left and a few had white/basal rot starting, unfortunately I found the same on the ones I grew from seed :(
That means I've no beds that are free of disease, so this will be the last year of trying to grow big onions. I'll just grow more bunching onions in my garden.
Oh what a shame, but no point if they get white rot is there :(
Your plan B sounds like a good option.
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we lifted our onion crop last week just in time as some where started to get white rot but we couldn't complain despite the dry hot weather we had a good crop of onions little waste from both white and red onions we grew sets and seed raised but having said all that we still have to pull the crop before the white rot sets in :mad:
I've decided to grow more onions from seed next season going for the following Element a Japanese [overwinter] sow week 3 August then next year Globo Santero Redlander and Exhibition also would like to try Bedfordshire champion but unsure how they will turn out? also going to grow shallots from seed Ambition
if anyone has been growing Bedfordshire Champion any feed back on this variety would be most welcome many thanks RW
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I did grow Bedfordshire Championship one year and was not that impressed with them, but it was a while ago and I can’t remember the details of why. Not much help I know ::)
This year I have Ailsa Craig and they are doing really well despite the heat and lack of rain. I have watered them a bit, but not as much as I probably should have. I tend to buy seeds of them or Globo over others for big sweet onions.
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Lost my entire crop to the root miner :mad:
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Lost my entire crop to the root miner :mad:
Oh no :(
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I note your reply New shoot and Il give the Bedfordshire onions a miss and go for some other variety i looked at Aisa craig as an alternative but it said they didn't store for long periods so I've had a rethink and golden Bear or Rijnsburger a Dutch variety both look a possibility having said that I don't really know those varieties because I've never grew them I'm looking for a good bulb onion that will keep overwinter not to acidic I can grow from seed ?
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Pulled mine out yesterday. They were all bending over at the neck. I am not sure cooking on the plot in another heatwave is going to benefit them and I am not sure how they would react if the weather broke and it went cool and wet.
They are about done anyway and safer in the shed :)
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I still have a lot to learn about growing proper onions.
I've found out that short-day onions are a better choice for where I live, and the seeds are sown in late summer to get good transplants to grow over the winter. I am growing Yellow Granex from seed, the seeds are in chitting containers now. That sweet variety is one of the types used in the Vidalia, Georgia region to produce Vidalia onions.
Question: I've read that the transplants should be about the diameter of a pencil before they are planted in the ground, but how deep should they be planted? My first guess is to plant the base (between roots and leaves) about an inch deep. Is that too shallow, or too deep? I'm making the assumption that long and short day onions should be the planted at the same depth, if using transplants.
All suggestions appreciated.
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I always plant mine at the same depth as they were in whatever they were growing in (pots, modules or whatever) so the compost they are in is only slightly buried. I find that putting a thin layer of soil over potting compost does help with stopping the root balls drying out.
Do you take them right out of the growing medium to plant them?
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I always plant mine at the same depth as they were in whatever they were growing in (pots, modules or whatever) so the compost they are in is only slightly buried. I find that putting a thin layer of soil over potting compost does help with stopping the root balls drying out.
Do you take them right out of the growing medium to plant them?
Well . . . that would be the "lot to learn" part. I've successfully grown a lot of things, not so much with onions.
So, my plan is to chit the seeds, and as they sprout, put them in a nursery pot (community pot style), with some distance between plants, to grow into transplants. Maybe 50 seedlings to a 2-gallon nursery (community) pot? My thought is, get them to a decent size in a community pot, remove them from the pot when they are large enough, trim the leaves and get them in the ground quickly (treat them like transplants that you might buy, which are usually bare root). I would probably leave any compost on the roots when transplanting. Seed packet instructions say to sow the seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, but that's for direct-planting. If the chitted seed, placed in a nursery pot, is covered by 1/4 inch of soil, I'm assuming that the soil over the seedling roots in the nursery pot would be no more than 1/4 inch. In that case, would you only have the roots buried 1/4 inch after transplanting in soil outdoors? Or bury a little deeper (and by how much approximately)?
Or am I going about this all wrong?
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our main onion from seed is Ailsa Craig also another couple of varieties we have found they store well [hanging in garage] still using last years this march, they have made a good size this year we dont seem to have much luck with red onions i would like to know a reliable red onion to grow from seed for next year
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I always plant mine at the same depth as they were in whatever they were growing in (pots, modules or whatever) so the compost they are in is only slightly buried. I find that putting a thin layer of soil over potting compost does help with stopping the root balls drying out.
Do you take them right out of the growing medium to plant them?
Well . . . that would be the "lot to learn" part. I've successfully grown a lot of things, not so much with onions.
So, my plan is to chit the seeds, and as they sprout, put them in a nursery pot (community pot style), with some distance between plants, to grow into transplants. Maybe 50 seedlings to a 2-gallon nursery (community) pot? My thought is, get them to a decent size in a community pot, remove them from the pot when they are large enough, trim the leaves and get them in the ground quickly (treat them like transplants that you might buy, which are usually bare root). I would probably leave any compost on the roots when transplanting. Seed packet instructions say to sow the seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, but that's for direct-planting. If the chitted seed, placed in a nursery pot, is covered by 1/4 inch of soil, I'm assuming that the soil over the seedling roots in the nursery pot would be no more than 1/4 inch. In that case, would you only have the roots buried 1/4 inch after transplanting in soil outdoors? Or bury a little deeper (and by how much approximately)?
Or am I going about this all wrong?
Not grown seedlings in a community pot, but I do start them off indoors in a small seed tray. I just sprinkle seeds in the surface of the compost and let them sprout there. They pull themselves into the compost at the depth they want to be at. The seed tray is covered to stop any drying out of roots.
They get transplanted into modules once they get to 2/3 leaves, but spaced in a community pot would work.
I do regularly use liquid fertiliser to keep them going. Onions and leeks really do benefit from that at seedling stage.
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our main onion from seed is Ailsa Craig also another couple of varieties we have found they store well [hanging in garage] still using last years this march, they have made a good size this year we dont seem to have much luck with red onions i would like to know a reliable red onion to grow from seed for next year
I grew Red Herald last year and they were pretty good.
Picture here :
https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=133954.msg1559509#msg1559509
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our main onion from seed is Ailsa Craig also another couple of varieties we have found they store well [hanging in garage] still using last years this march, they have made a good size this year we dont seem to have much luck with red onions i would like to know a reliable red onion to grow from seed for next year
I've grown Redspark the last few years and they keep well.
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Not grown seedlings in a community pot, but I do start them off indoors in a small seed tray. I just sprinkle seeds in the surface of the compost and let them sprout there. They pull themselves into the compost at the depth they want to be at. The seed tray is covered to stop any drying out of roots.
They get transplanted into modules once they get to 2/3 leaves, but spaced in a community pot would work.
I do regularly use liquid fertiliser to keep them going. Onions and leeks really do benefit from that at seedling stage.
Well, the chitted seeds sprouted, more quickly than I thought they would. They are now in the nursery pots, we'll see what happens.