show onions 2

Oops!! I should have put (show onions) In the grow your own section sorry about that! well anyway.. Does anyone know if I need to grow show onions under cover, I was thinking of buliding a small green house out of wood and pvc. And I am unsure what to feed them. I grew some Kelsae this year but I planted them 3 months later than I should have. They grew to about the size of a shop onion. Well If anyone can help It would be appreciated.

Thanks for the comment richyrich,shame I couldn't deliver the goods in the onion department this year. :cry:

Anyway it's not necessary to grow show onions under cover but it does give you a big advantage.

The warmer you can keep them earlier on in the season the bigger they will be but conversley under cover they can get too hot in summer which makes them stop growing,so you need to provide adequate ventilation in hot weather.

As for feeding under cover all you need is a good rich soil and general application of fertilizer, as you won't be getting rained on like outside and you can control the watering then the fertilizer won't be getting flushed out of the soil.

Excessive feeding later on and trying to force them to grow can actually make them ripen off prematurely and split when they continue to grow,so under cover just make sure you have an adequate supply of the overall nutrients by doing a soil test then just leave it.

Mine were doing well this year until I had a thrip explosion which is another problem undercover and it ruined them within a week but now I know the telltale signs I now know what to do.

So go for it.. get some grown under cover and you'll be amazed how big they'll be.

P.S I.m going for Kelsae next year after this years disaster.