[Brassica Blaz]

hi everyone, can anyone tell me if you get better results from seed for growing onions? ive always used sets,the brown onions have always been acceptable but the reds are not so good,so i thought i'd have a bash from seed next year.are seeds the way to go for better onions?.

[DD.]

My seed ones are rubbish and my sets (Centurion) are the best ever.

I've given up with reds as they always bolt.

[Ropster]

Seeds are cheeper and there are a lot more varietys, but they are a lot more work in my opinion. if you want to grow huge onions seeds are the only way to go though

[janiejakemum]

We were wondering about this too, this year we have had great success with our red and white onions but next year plan on doing a lot more so thought seed might work out cheaper, this year we just put in sets.

[Brassica Blaz]

hi janie, i dont suppose you know the variety of the red onions that s doing well do you.i use loads if them and i'm dying to get a worthwhile crop.how do you condition your soil for them?

[sean moore]

how long will sets last as my local focus has then at 10p per bag
regards
sean

[Jay Dubya]

Hi, a big difference is in the keeping sets will not keep as good as seed onions. I normally grow sets for kitchen use and seed for my big onions.

[janiejakemum]

No sorry ive no idea of the variety, we eat a lot more white onions to be honest i just threw the reds in because they were given to me.

We are very new to this veg growing lark but i do think my veggie garden has benefitted from a heavy load of well rotted manure, other than that i only use nettle tea or if something like blueberries i feed with my Rodedendhron feed.

[wighty]

Up until this year I would have said seeds. The shop is always quiet over Christmas so we plant out onion seeds, even now they look like Spring onions and the sets we planted are good.  We prefer seeds as they last longer.(stored).

[Bozwell]

I got red onions from seed and white from sets and they are size wise pretty evenly matched, though the ones from seed never did seem quite as robust as the sets early on. I always thought I was about to lose them.

[zazen999]

Seeds, every time. The sets are easy but perhaps too easy, meaning people lose the art of growing good onions from seeds. Mind you, I am a tad addicted to growing onions from seed so 

[Elcie]

I tried seed and only 2 grew to the size of spring onions!  I have used sets this year but might consider a combination next year if there is any advice out there on how to be successful with onions from seed as I have few packs in my seed box!

[SnooziSuzi]

I've grown onions from seed this year for the first time and I must say that so far I'm impressed with the rate of growth etc and I think i'll do this every year from now on!

I also have some sets in, but these were planted long before the seeds were sown and so are much larger.

For me, the advantage of sets is that you know where you put the onion when it was planted; ie you would have spaced them accordingly etc, whereas seeds have to be thinned out, but then you get lurverly spring onions for using in stir frys so its win-win IMHO!  :happy:

[Brassica Blaz]

thanks for all your advice veggie mates, i think i'll try a bit of a mixture next time  and see how they go!

[zazen999]

My method is to sow a pinch into modules, and when they are a few inches tall, plant them out still in the module bunches [don't thin them yet].

Once they are about 8 inches tall, then uproot them and put them into their final spaces.

Then, as they develop, make sure you keep them well weeded [by hand unless you have lots of space], and as you pull the weeds out, it loosens the soil and lets them bulk out. If in a non-clay soil raised bed, keep them well watered apart from once the leaves fall over as they need to dry out then.

I sow them in September and leave them in the module batches until the spring, then they get moved into their final places; and sow again in Dec/Jan and put them into final positions very early summer.

If they have been out all winter, finger them by loosening the soil around them so that they can absorb the spring rains to bulk out, and they should be ready about now. The Dec/Jan ones are ready about Aug/Sept.