[iggyboy60]

I notice many of the boys on the allotments put their onion sets in trays with just a small depth of soil. Is this a form of chitting as I think the idea is to keep the sets this way until the weather is right for them to be planted in the ground. Also,does this method put the sets back as they must obviously have to be disturbed from the soil in the tray to be planted in their final growing place. Thank-you for your time

[Salmo]

The onions do not want to be in the trays very long, just enough to start a small root and shoot. Whether this will gain them anything you will have to wait and see.

The risk they take is that the if weather remains cold and wet and their sets sprout too much they will be checked when they are planted.

My advice would be to hold fire and plant yours when the soil has warmed up. You could of course put a few in a tray and see which gives the best crop. That is you remember in August which were which.

[andy135]

I did this with mine last year as we had some late snow so I couldn't put them in the ground. I put around a inch of compost in a tray and stood the sets in it shoulder to shoulder. They grew shoots about an inch long by the time I planted them out, and had a bit of root growth which I think helped them to get away a bit quicker. They also had less chance of birds pulling them up. Out of 122 planted, I harvested 120 onions.

[RichardA]

I buy heat treated sets so not delivered yet. They always catch up and no losses or premature bolting.
R

[artyGill]

My OH was told to do this with his onions too by some of the more experienced guys down at our allotment. They said the main benefit was to stop the birds pulling them out.

[DD.]

Birds will pull sets out as soon as they've gone in, given half a chance, even if they go in rooted they won't get time to get a grip in the ground.

I always plant unrooted & unshooted, trim any long dry bits off the set, (they go for this) and just cover with soil by pulling a bit up with your hand or hoe. This will fall away as you conscientiously hoe during the season.

[iggyboy60]

Thanks all for your responses