[fletcherbaker]

Hi all i want to grow onions from sets but as a newbie can anyone tell me the best and easiest onion sets to grow also i want to grow elephant garlic am i to late or will it be okay if i plant it now has anyone tried this and are the results worth doing thanks!

[DD.]

Red sets can tend to bolt, so I'd cut my teeth on white ones. Stuggart Giant, Sturon, most of the common varities garden centres have should give results.

I grew elephant garlic once, (it's not really garlic, it's a relative of the leek). I to say I was very disappointed with the flavour would be an understatement.

[fletcherbaker]

Thanks for that DD might give it a miss then seems pricey,might try solent white instead think its called that anyways  ill keep away from red sets then aswell thanks!

[Kristen]

Being dyslexic I'm the last one to comment on anyone's spelling, but just in case it helps when you are hunting for your Garlic quite a lot of garlic seems to have "Wight" in the name (rather than "White") ... dunno why, is it to do with the Isle of Wight perhaps? (where there is a Garlic festival)

[DD.]

There's a huge garlic farm there, Kristen:


http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/

[Kristen]

I had had a look at their site. They don't seem to say anything about breeding their own, and  "Chesnok Wight Garlic" comes from "Southern Ukraine on the Black Sea" ... so I'm none the wiser how it gets "Wight" in its name.  Their Marketing department maybe

[DD.]

They may not breed it, but they grow it!

[Kristen]

On that basis I should flog "Purple Moldovan Kristen Garlic", "Monte Kristen Watermelon", and "A24:K36 cell planners" []

[DD.]

I do a mean line in "DD. Parsnips"!

[wighty]

Kristen, to back you up, you are not going 'mad'.  I live on the Isle of Wight and we have a Garlic Farm which supplies most of England with it's garlic.  Colin Boswell (Spit spit spit) not the most popular person on the Island travels round the world to get the best ones to grow in our cliimate. As DD says  Elephant Garlic  is related to the leek family  and has a totallly different taste to normal garlic.  I only grow Solent Wight.

[Trillium]

I've grown our varieties of elephant garlic and will never bother again as its so bland and way too pricey for what you get.

And like DD, I find red onion sets live only to bolt on me  so I now have red onion seedlings sprouting so they'll be ready for planting out in May.

[onthebeach]

I've grown our varieties of elephant garlic and will never bother again as its so bland and way too pricey for what you get.

And like DD, I find red onion sets live only to bolt on me  so I now have red onion seedlings sprouting so they'll be ready for planting out in May.

i love red onion. where can i get the seeds from are they easy to find and how are they to grow. can i start them off on my kitchen windowsill. i am a novice and am gonna sound really thick now but do they grow above or below ground??? i dont want to grow below ground stuff as i like to be able to see whats going on. any help appreciated.