[jenjen]

Hi All - I am in need of desperate help. I am new to gardening and have an allotment which seems to be doing well. My problem is my husband went  into the loval pub at the weekend and came home with 2 onion plants which he said he had entered us into the pub onion growing competition for who can grow the biggest one - I need all the tips i can get because I wanna win he he ! many thanks
Jennie

[paintedlady]

vegmandan is the "giant onion man" to ask see http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=17437.0 

[Trebor]

No expert on this but, ‘Ailsa Craig’ was the variety that I heard of as being a good show onion. Probably worth checking out if you can’t find the varieties given in the link.

[SG6]

Presently growing mammoth onion but cannot give much advice as the germination rate was awful. The ones I have managed to germinate should come out large.

Am I to gather that you are supposed to grow the plants that were brought back?

Also where are you, if just up/down the road from me I could donate a couple of spare ones. I really do think that location should be mandatory to fill in as it helps when any advice is requested.

[blackbob]

Hi All - I am in need of desperate help. I am new to gardening and have an allotment which seems to be doing well. My problem is my husband went  into the loval pub at the weekend and came home with 2 onion plants which he said he had entered us into the pub onion growing competition for who can grow the biggest one - I need all the tips i can get because I wanna win he he ! many thanks
Jennie

the best advice i can give is learn to walk before you start running.
joking aside there is so much to take onboard, when it comes to growing show veg.
best of luck bob

[Elcie]

It is the local pub competition though, not a 'show' in the true sense.  Have some fun with it is what I say.  Plant it, give it lots of appropriate food and see how you get on.

Would be brilliant if you managed to beat some of the ones who have been doing it for years!

[shaun]

this site has a few tips

http://www.exhibition-seed.info/cultivation.htm

[Howard]

Hi Jennie

I don't know what your budget is, obviously, but this is how I would approach it.

Firstly, I would make up a small batch of growing medium in the following ratios:

3 parts good quality compost (put through a ½" riddle)
1 part topsoil (put through a ½" riddle)
1 part Vermiculite

To this, I would add N A Kays Exhibition Leek and Onion Base Compost Mix @ 10gm/litre

I would then, very, very carefully, re-pot the onions, carrying forward as little of their original growing medium as possible.

I would pop them in my greenhouse, but if you don't have one then find somewhere that is sheltered from the wind but still gets decent amounts of sunlight. From this point on, I would water little and often, making sure that they don't dry out.

When they are ready to be potted on, I would make up another mix (again using Kays Exhibition Leek and Onion Base Compost Mix @ 10gm/litre) in the following ratios:

4 parts good quality compost (put through a ½" riddle)
3 part topsoil (put through a ½" riddle)
1 part Vermiculite

I would love them and tend them, and then love them some more and hope that they grow big enough to pot on again into something perhaps the size of a builders bucket (using the same growing mix).

And all the time, I would keep my fingers crossed! 

Howard

[jenjen]

thank you so much for all your advice - i will take it all on board and see what happens - will send a picture of the winning results he he