maybe a silly question about onions

If you're planting onion sets....you don't do anything to them

just so I don't make a complete plank of myself.........
by onion sets you mean what looks like very small onions (I don't mean a small species of onion) that are designed to grow larger once planted?

am I thinking correctly that thats how they grow?

by onion sets you mean what looks like very small onions  that are designed to grow larger once planted?

am I thinking correctly that thats how they grow?

Yes, that's correct.

Most people stick them straight into the soil, then fight the birds to stop the little sods pulling them all up by the tuft on top.  You can get very elaborate with thorn prunings and black cotton, or you can stick a spare cloche over the row for a week or two (helps keep the sweet spring showers from chilling them too much too).

Yes they are pretty frost hardy - mine have been in all winter with no problems, and even in Jersey the temp has been below minus 3 and the ground temp down to minus 8.  I plant mine straight in the ground but I do put a couple of strings above them for the first few weeks until they are well up.  It seems a lot of bother to plant them indoors first.  They always grow well.

sorry to hijack this thread
I also wanted to know if staggering the planting was worthwhile so I'll be interested to read replies

and also wanted to ask :
Re the sets I planted last autumn, should the onions be visible?, mine are just green stems about 20cm long, wondered if I planted too deep?

Yes you can, it will set them back a little but they will be fine. I move onions round all the time - they sometimes tut at me when they see me coming with my trowel and an empty bucket.