[harry]

I saw a good idea on the horticultural channel, you cut the inside of a toilet roll in half fill it with compost and put an onion set in it. When the roots start growing bury the whole thing on your allotment.

[Junie]

So much for buying some - none to be found - I have missed the boat!

[JayG]

Notwithstanding Kristen's post about his soil not been ready, I am becoming increasingly baffled as to why the humble onion set seems to be regarded by some as if it needs mollycoddling like a prize orchid! 

(Having said that, my "onions from seeds" are still behaving as if they think they actually are prize orchids!) 

[Kristen]

Notwithstanding Kristen's post about his soil not been ready

And to be truthful I never faff'd with Sets, I jsut stuck them in the ground. Now I grow Onions from Seed they need growing-on and then planting-out of course, but I would not be bothered to do that for Sets.  Nor for Peas or Carrots and the like in loo-rolls ...

[bigben]

Notwithstanding Kristen's post about his soil not been ready, I am becoming increasingly baffled as to why the humble onion set seems to be regarded by some as if it needs mollycoddling like a prize orchid! 

(Having said that, my "onions from seeds" are still behaving as if they think they actually are prize orchids!) 

As I have indicated earlier I am growing around 500 onions plus some winter ones put in Oct/Nov. I could not really do the loo roll thing with so many. My understanding of people doing this was to get them of to an earlier start rather than protect them.

I am happy with the size my onions grew to last year so will not bother trying to get them in any earlier but if I was only growing a hundred I might try starting them earlier so they were bigger. It also allows you to see which are not viable and perhaps avoid the birds pecking them out if they already have a bit of a root system when you plant them.

[SkipRat]

I Slung 150 sturon, in today...

[gazza975526570]

Id agree with the comments about over protection. Seems a waste of time and effort growing in modules, loo rolls etc.

Never had failures just sticking them directly in the ground. Mine this year are all in now and im confident (hopefull anyway!!) of a decent crop

[RichardA]

400 to go in tomorrow, direct in ground
R

[Yorkie]

I put mine straight into the ground 3 days after that and they are all well rooted and anchored now.

Is it worth that faffing about, I wonder?

I (rather unexpectedly) have scaffolding structures and old roof laths on my front garden so am very pleased I didn't put the onions straight in.  They'd be a bit squashed 

[andy135]

I put mine straight into the ground 3 days after that and they are all well rooted and anchored now.

Is it worth that faffing about, I wonder?

I (rather unexpectedly) have scaffolding structures and old roof laths on my front garden so am very pleased I didn't put the onions straight in.  They'd be a bit squashed 

Have you got "leaks" rather than onions then, Yorkie? 

[Jamie Butterworth]

I planted two rows of mine straight out today

[JohnB47]

What on earth do you folks do with so many onions - surely you must give many away?

Mind don't last any longer than would feed the two of us anyway, so there's no need for me to plant more than, say, 45. (And only about 30 of those survive to the eating stage).

[richyrich7]

Thinking of module growing, I used to do mine 4-5 seeds a module, never thinned and planted in a staggered pattern fractional larger than normal spacings or even normal spacings ( slightly smaller onions) and they push each other apart as they grow. As long as you dont mind the occasional odd shape which is fine if not for show.
Sets are a lot easier and should be in by now, I'd be concerned about breaking off roots if I started sets in trays.

[Gandan57]

We eat loads of onions. always put 4 or 5 in with the roast teddies on a Sunday.

[Yorkie]

Have you got "leaks" rather than onions then, Yorkie? 

 

Hope not 

In the last two days the old tiles and guttering have come off, and the new roof lining / laths gone up so it is watertight again.  Tiles go on next week.  The unexpected bit of replacing the main part of the roof was that it was scheduled to happen at the end of August.  The builder rang up at the start of last week and asked what I thought about having it done a little early, like the following week

The old roof wasn't quite at the leaking stage but it was 75 years old and the old tiles were slipping off the roof and shattering so it did need doing.  The unexpectedly leaking bay roof was fixed early about a month ago.