[webby139]

2 Questions please !

1) Spuds - How do you store em to give em best chance of keeping well? 

2) Onion - I have let one go to seed - Can i use these to grow next year - if so how ?? 

Thanks,
Web.

[Robster]

You dig them up leave them in the sun for a while and then put them in breathable sacks.  Several people sell the old hessian type which are good.  Then cool and dark.

I think you can save onion seed.  Though Ive never done it.

[Kristen]

2) Onion - I have let one go to seed - Can i use these to grow next year - if so how ?? 

If its first year, from sowing, then best not to save the seed as it has bolted and it's children might be predisposed to bolting too   If its second year then you can save the seed, but if it was an F1 variety then the children may be All Sorts.

[fatbelly]

2 Questions please !

1) Spuds - How do you store em to give em best chance of keeping well? 

2) Onion - I have let one go to seed - Can i use these to grow next year - if so how ?? 

Thanks,
Web.

Store sound spuds in hessian sacks in the cool and dark

Why bother with seed when Onions sets are so cheap.

[cadalot]

I'm growing from seeds next year Just to see if I can 

99p or £1 shop sells Hessian sacks if you get there before the take the gardening stuff off and replace with Halloween 

[Kristen]

Why bother with seed when Onions sets are so cheap.

For me it is because of more choice of varieties, minor considers are greatly reduced risk of bolting (shouldn't be a problem with heat treated sets) and possible risk that Sets might bring White Rot with them (shouldn't be the case from a decent source).

[surbie100]

I'm growing from seeds next year Just to see if I can 

Me too

[snowdrops]

I got thick hessian sacks from the market stall that sells bird food, few years ago they were 20p a sack. Only problem is the soil from the potatoes works it's way out of the bag & makes a mess. I also get potato sacks from my friendly green grocer.

[beesrus]

For me .................the  possible risk that Sets might bring White Rot with them (shouldn't be the case from a decent source).

That is now my main concern, with several friends almost giving up growing onions due to white rot all over their plots. Nowhere can I find any supplier that certifies their onion sets as "white rot free" in the way seed potatoes are certified "disease free". So that omission says it all, respected supplier or no. Try and find one supplier online that will certify rot free sets. Speaks volumes. In fact, I wonder how possible it is in a mass market to certify such things in any case with any confidence.

Like potatoes, onions are an important staple crop for many, including me, and the long term contaminated plot is a risk  not worth taking.
So I have had a dual running  this year, both seed and sets, and the seed results were OK but not 100% as I would like them, and nowhere near as good as the set onions.  I need to further nail down my timings and methods for another year. Shouldn't be a problem now I know what I'm doing ( thanks to Totty for his expert seed onion input ), and hopefully, I will be onion set free the year after next.

[Kristen]

Nowhere can I find any supplier that certifies their onion sets as "white rot free"

I didn't look hard, but I didn't see any evidence that White Rot is likely to be transmitted via sets - I was assuming that the heat treatment might fix the problem, but maybe I'm being naive or ill informed?

the seed results were OK but not 100% as I would like them, and nowhere near as good as the set onions.  I need to further nail down my timings and methods for another year

I think that my onions, from seed, are Just Fine ... but I've not grown from sets alongside. However, many of my gardening chums struggle with onions from seed and I wonder why? (or whether they would say my onions are pathetic if they saw them!).

I'd be interested to know what the issue is that you have with seed-sown, compared to set-planted?

[AnneB]

I grew onions from sets from overwintered varieties and summer ones this year, plus for the first time some summer sown from seed.   Shallots I tried both.

For the overwintered sets I got Radar and Electric from Simpson's seeds and they were fine.

 For the summer ones I tried to get Turbo sets and couldn't and ended up getting Stuttgarter Giant and Red Baron pre-packed sets from our local garden centre.    A good percentage (30%?) of these ended up with white rot and / or allium leaf miner.

I sowed Yellow Rijnsburger and Zebrune shallot from Real Seeds.   I didn't sow many due to space issues and it was just an experiment.  They all grew well with no disease issues.

Now I can't say definitively that the onion white rot and/or the allium leaf miner came with the garden centre sets as it wasn't a controlled experiment.  I won't be buying any more from that source however! 

I might use sets again, from Simpson's (they had a good deal price wise last autumn if you bought more than one pack), but if I can sort out the space issues by being a bit more organised, I  think I will stick with seed in future.  Bigger choice of variety, cheaper and hopefully a smaller chance of imported disease.

[beesrus]

1....I didn't see any evidence that White Rot is likely to be transmitted via sets - I was assuming that the heat treatment might fix the problem, but maybe I'm being naive or ill informed?

2....I'd be interested to know what the issue is that you have with seed-sown, compared to set-planted?

1... That's a mighty big assumption there Kristen . Everything I have ever been told seems to suggest white rot is far more prevalent than it used to be. Sets would certainly be on the list of causative suspects. To be honest, I have lost faith in virtually every food product on sale these days that purports to have gone through some sort of vague treatment. For instance, do they still irridiate bananas ? Remember that one ?. It's not even clearly stated on most onion sets that they are are 'heat treated', and there is no way a mechanically operated set manufacture procedure will know what bulbs have rot.  "Heat treatment" in this case isn't like milk sterilisation. In fact I would assume many of these set producing "farms" don't rotate like we do. I simply don't trust it.

2... Only 40% of my seed onions grew to an acceptable size, and I ended up with a lot of picklers. And that's without worrying about leaf miners and the like. Sets always give me a final 85% success rate. I don't have a South facing light enough room at home to grow any seeds adequately, especially so early. Consequently, after germination, they all need to go to the cold greenhouse with some sort of double insulation, with all the temperature fluctuations that can cause. This works well with other early seeds like chilies and toms, but onions are a different animal. I'm also not sure at which stage they should go out, and how. I sort of treated them as leeks this year and that was a mistake I believe. Probably need to be in separate modules almost right from January. Leeks don't mind their roots being mucked about with, but I now know onions are different. I'll have 3 methods and go for the most effective.

And that's all before I investigate how to successfully sow Japanese onion seeds rather than sets. Does anyone here actually sow Autumn onion by seed ? Is it just a case of the right variety germinated at the right time ? (ie low day length variety sown in say July ish ?)

[Robster]

Yesterday I read the Onion from seed thread.  Well at least a bit of it1  So like a couple of the others have said on this thread I'm going to have a go at onions from seed to see if I can manage it next year.  I'm going to try kelsae since it looks the biggest.

[Kristen]

1...

Yes, good points. In my lifetime far too many things have been found to be a significant problem long after they have been touted as Better Than Sliced Bread and then been the defacto standard for years ... and then been banned  Margarine? Low-fat vs. Low-sugar??

2... Only 40% of my seed onions grew to an acceptable size, and I ended up with a lot of picklers

Hmmm ... I have some smaller ones, but none that are as small as to be pickling size.

I don't have a South facing light enough room at home to grow any seeds adequately, especially so early. Consequently, after germination, they all need to go to the cold greenhouse with some sort of double insulation, with all the temperature fluctuations that can cause

This is probably the cause/effect I was looking for.  My seedlings are in conservatory (not heated, but definitely frost free, and close to frost on only a very nights of the year). In previous years I have put them under supplemental light, but then I panicked that I might trigger shortening days and bulbing up so I don't do that now!

Would you consider supplemental light? or is that too dear / too much faff / Weirdo territory ?

I sort of treated them as leeks this year and that was a mistake I believe. Probably need to be in separate modules almost right from January. Leeks don't mind their roots being mucked about with, but I now know onions are different. I'll have 3 methods and go for the most effective.

I haven't read the Growing Onions Thread, so may be repeating what is there:

I sow (in 1/4 sized seed trays) in heated propagator
I prick out to module cells. The module cells are small (1" square)
When I plant out all the roots are coiled up at the bottom of the cell like a spring. I gently straighten them out and arrange them vertically in the planting hole.  It doesn't take as long as it probably sounds like

[AnneB]

Beesrus, I have just sown some overwintering Paris White onions,  on 18th August, as advised by the Real Seeds website.   They are in the polytunnel at the moment and are just emerging.   I just need to make sure they are all through, then I am going to keep them in a cold frame, with lid open / shut depending on outside temp, bringing them on to hopefully a decent size to plant out in October.   First time trying from seed for overwintered ones.   

You might get away with it sowing now, but if you leave it too long they won't be big enough to see through the winter.   Earlier than mid August and they will flower instead of making a bulb.