[Maccbean]

I know I'm gonna sound really thick here but.......does one onion set produce one onion>

[scabs]

Yup!

Shallots are a different matter.

[Maccbean]

Thanks for that, I thought perhaps I got a bunch!!

[scabs]

I wish! 

[Siouxfly]

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?

[scabs]

 

[massa]

is it too late to plant onion sets?

[skywalker]

Mine have been in for a while but on the next plot saw a lady putting some in yesterday?.

[chilli-pot]

I planted about 250 onion sets last week/10 days ago. so far all are showing green shoots about 2" tall

[scabs]

Get 'em in! 

[Maccbean]

I planted about 250 onion sets last week/10 days ago. so far all are showing green shoots about 2" tall

250!!!   What are you gonna do with 250 onions?  I thought I used a lot, but blimey.  Puts my 20 to shame!

[bigben]

I planted about 250 onion sets last week/10 days ago. so far all are showing green shoots about 2" tall

250!!!   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.

[Snoop]

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.

[DD.]

Like small onions.

Have a look at this page on this site:

http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/onion-shallot/grow-onion-set.php

[Snoop]

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.