autumn/winter onion bulbs or seeds ....

**zazen999** · 08-08-2012, 08:15 AM

Both?

I sow Long Red Florence onions about now, and get them planted out under some protection around October time for spring/early summer crops.

I also put Radar sets in around 21st Sept-ish again under some protection for the same.

As long as you go for overwintering varieties and protect them from the very worst weather, to hold off bolting - then you should be ok.

I also grow some shallots and potato onions over the winter, again I protect them.

I find the key to overwintering all alliums is - sow july/august [if seed] put in the ground sept/oct, cover all winter.

In the spring - weed and loosen the soil around them, give them a good phosphorus feed, water it in and apart from that, leave them to it.

**areia** · 08-08-2012, 08:44 AM

thank you will give these ago

potato onions ??? never heard of them sounds like all i need to add is gravy and ive got a ready meal hehe

**Kaiya** · 08-08-2012, 10:15 AM

I grew Senshyu Yellow onions, Jermor shallots and Thermidrome garlic all from sets (or cloves) last year and all did fantastically. The garlic got rust at the end but the bulbs were still decent sizes. I stuck them in modules in October (lovely weather), the onions grew roots and leaf, the others just grew roots. Then planted them out in November, 'mulched' them with the last semi-rotted sludgey grass clippings of the year (not recommended to apply wet mulch lol), and then ignored them. I didn't protect them (Essex, a fair amount of snow, they were under 6 inches for a while, but not months of it).

We started eating the onions fresh from I think May, and I pulled the lot up in July to start drying them. 70 shallots from about 9 originals, I think about 18 garlic, and around 40 onions, many of which have already been eaten.

The bike is coniscidental but I think it goes well with onions

This year I got some free Senshyu Yellow seeds from an order so will be sowing them in modules very soon, and will save some of the drying shallots and garlic to plant out in Oct/Nov. I also have some Paris White seed to over winter too. However the SY sets were so successful, I may be tempted to buy some more sets for Nov, just in case the seeds don't do so well. I got SY sets from my local Wyevale.

**Linnea** · 08-08-2012, 10:46 AM

Originally posted by Kaiya View Post

.... and will save some of the drying shallots and garlic to plant out in Oct/Nov. .....

I grew Shallots from set this year and although got a fair number of larger bulbs also some small set sized ones too can I just replant them?

**Dead Dogs** · 08-08-2012, 11:09 AM

My over wintered onions did not do well at all. So bad in fact that I put more sets in the spring. Same plot.
I did have a few sets left over after planting in Oct and put these in the greenhouse. These did ok and we had fresh onions in May.
This winter I will try some in the poly, see how thing go.

**Alison** · 08-08-2012, 11:29 AM

Originally posted by Linnea View Post

I grew Shallots from set this year and although got a fair number of larger bulbs also some small set sized ones too can I just replant them?

Yes, the little ones make the bigges ones next year for some reason.

**Linnea** · 08-08-2012, 11:37 AM

great. how do I store them so that i can replant in oct/nov? do they need just dark and dry?

**hamsterhead** · 08-08-2012, 11:46 AM

Originally posted by zazen999 View Post

Both?

potato onions .

I hope these will fulfill the size criteria for the upcoming Shardlow Show.

**Tripmeup** · 08-08-2012, 11:48 AM

As Zaz says, I find the best approach is a bit of both!!
On onions, I planted Radar sets last October and harvested in late May/early June and from seed I grew F1 Hiball which I harvested from end June onwards... Both worked out well for me...
I also then sow Onion sets in Spring

I like my alliums so also have garlic, shallots, elephant garlic and so on.....

**zazen999** · 08-08-2012, 01:09 PM

Originally posted by Alison View Post

Yes, the little ones make the bigges ones next year for some reason.

Reason is, they are all 'born' with the ability to divide each year. So the big ones have more ability so divide more. The smaller ones have less ability so divide less. In reality - this means that you get more in big ones, and less in little ones and because of the space they have to spread, the big ones produce more but smaller babies and the little ones produce less but bigger babies.

**Alison** · 08-08-2012, 04:56 PM

Originally posted by zazen999 View Post

Reason is, they are all 'born' with the ability to divide each year. So the big ones have more ability so divide more. The smaller ones have less ability so divide less. In reality - this means that you get more in big ones, and less in little ones and because of the space they have to spread, the big ones produce more but smaller babies and the little ones produce less but bigger babies.

Is it the same with garlic though - never really noticed that much difference there, whereas it's very pronounced with shallots.

**zazen999** · 08-08-2012, 05:27 PM

When I did my trials, the heaviest resulting bulb came from the lightest weighing clove.

**Florence Fennel** · 08-08-2012, 07:21 PM

I was going to boil up my tiny cloves of garlic to make an insecticide, I thought that's probably all they were of use for. Looking at this, I might put them in modules tomorrow to see what happens.

**Shadylane** · 08-08-2012, 07:59 PM

Originally posted by zazen999 View Post

When I did my trials, the heaviest resulting bulb came from the lightest weighing clove.

Really? I always thought you were only supposed to plant the biggest cloves. Hmmm interestin, may have to do me own trial.

As for onions, last autumn I planted white sets (no idea what variety, I get them from this shop which sells them on weight- ridiculously cheap - I think I got about 100 for 60p or something) they did really well. I also sow red baron seeds without protection. They did bolt this year but didn't last year and the ones I cloched were smaller than the unprotected ones.

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