[sclarke624]

A lot of you say you are unsuccessful with growing spring onions.  Maybe its not all your fault.  I have just read an article that says:- 7 of 17 seed suppliers in the case of 'white lisbon spring onion' failed to meet requirements.  Unwins were the worst with only a 57% success rate, Simpsons only 59% success rate in one packet.  The consumer watch dog also tested flowers and other veg.

Overall top preformer was (for all seeds I think) Nickys Nurseries with 94% germination rate, Dobies 91% and Suttons at 86%, Thompson and Morgan 83% success.

The worst companys were dismissive of the results unsurprisingly saying the test would not stand up to scientific scrutiny and they were alright when we tried them. 

Obviously thats not word for word or that would be copying the article which can be found in Amateur gardening Oct 24th.  Buts thats the gist of it.

[Christine]

Of course it wouldn't stand up to scientific testing. On the other hand - we aren't scientists we are mostly amateur gardeners who do what the packet tells us to do.

Goodness me - should we take exams in order to plant packets of seeds?

[Brambles]

I have to say that my spring onions were spoilt by OH building a footpath and digging half of them up... but the ones that were not disturbed at all did not come to anything either!   Interesting article and comforting to know that it might not have been my lack of green fingers after all

[strangerachael]

For anecdotal evidence: I tried to grow spring onions for two or three years, using the same packet, without success. Virtually 0% germination. Then I thought I would give them one more chance with a new packet and lo and behold I have had no problems ever since. I did suspect it might be the seed because they are supposed to be quite easy to grow and I didn't think I had done anything wrong.