Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Maccbean on May 25, 2010, 15:40

Title: Onion Sets
Post by: Maccbean on May 25, 2010, 15:40
I know I'm gonna sound really thick here but.......does one onion set produce one onion> :blush:
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: scabs on May 25, 2010, 15:51
Yup!

Shallots are a different matter.
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: Maccbean on May 25, 2010, 16:14
Thanks for that, I thought perhaps I got a bunch!!
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: scabs on May 25, 2010, 16:16
I wish!  :lol:
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: Siouxfly on May 25, 2010, 16:28
Okay I'll own up. I thought you got a bunch too so I haven't planted anywhere near enough but I did find out before I put my red onions in, so I will have plenty of them but they were from seed anyway. You live and learn eh?
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: scabs on May 25, 2010, 16:30
 :)
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: massa on May 25, 2010, 21:45
is it too late to plant onion sets?
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: skywalker on May 25, 2010, 21:47
Mine have been in for a while but on the next plot saw a lady putting some in yesterday?.
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: chilli-pot on May 26, 2010, 00:31
I planted about 250 onion sets last week/10 days ago. so far all are showing green shoots about 2" tall
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: scabs on May 26, 2010, 09:15
Get 'em in!  ;)
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: Maccbean on May 26, 2010, 09:34
I planted about 250 onion sets last week/10 days ago. so far all are showing green shoots about 2" tall

250!!! :ohmy:  What are you gonna do with 250 onions?  I thought I used a lot, but blimey.  Puts my 20 to shame!
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: bigben on May 26, 2010, 10:13
I planted about 250 onion sets last week/10 days ago. so far all are showing green shoots about 2" tall

250!!! :ohmy:  What are you gonna do with 250 onions?  I thought I used a lot, but blimey.  Puts my 20 to shame!
The guy next to me has two allotments and is growing 1200+ onions this year! (I think he supplies a local green grocer). He does not waste a scrap of land and seems to be on almost full time.
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: Snoop on May 26, 2010, 16:32
I planted about 250 onion sets last week/10 days ago. so far all are showing green shoots about 2" tall

OK, I really now have to ask the most stupid question ever on this site: what does an onion set look like? Or rather, what does it look like in the UK?

I've been pondering on this for a while and this morning, as I watered my onions, I tossed up how much I wanted to know and how embarrassed I'd be to ask. But chilli-pot, you've really got me wondering. I've seen pictures in UK seed catalogues but I've assumed that what they show is the finished onion, not the set.

When I buy onions for planting out here, I get a bunch of a hundred or so things that consist of two or three thin green leaves around 20 cm long with a miniature bulb, half a centimetre across at most, at the bottom. They cost around three euros the lot.
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: DD. on May 26, 2010, 16:43
Like small onions.

Have a look at this page on this site:

http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/onion-shallot/grow-onion-set.php
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: Snoop on May 27, 2010, 14:56
Thank you DD. I don't feel quite so daft now. Odd that things should be so different.

I presume that if I grow onions from seed using your leek method, I'll end up with something just like what I buy at the nursery. Growing from seed would give me a lot more variety. Round here, all you can get are the whopping Valencianes (white flesh, no skin to speak of and sweet) and what they call 'rojas' or reds (white flesh, coppery coloured skin and much 'stingier' in flavour than Valencianes). Both very good and so far I've had very successful crops, but it's always interesting to try others.
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: DD. on May 27, 2010, 15:14
No reason why you can't start your onions off like that.

Can't remember who, but someone else was going to do them that way.
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: Snoop on May 27, 2010, 15:27
Probably me! I'm going to start shallots off from seeds in washing-up bowls next year. I sowed them direct this year and the weeds and me weeding have taken their toll. I probably sowed about 250 shallot seeds and now have about half that left in the ground.

The leeks look really great. It's a fantastic method.
Title: Re: Onion Sets
Post by: DD. on May 27, 2010, 15:40
Now that you mention washing up bowls.................