Onions Onions Onions!!

We will be starting a allium sowing thread sometime after Christmas day.

To get a continual supply; in reality...
Sets go in during the autumn; starting in August through to Nov
Sow onions December and plant out in the spring
Sets go in during the spring.

Start harvesting any of the earliest sets as soon as they are big enough; pull intermittently and leave the others to grow on.

When any die back; dig up and leave to dry off for storage - use the autumn sets first.

End of season, dig up all the remaining onions and leave them to dry off; and store properly.

Then, put the next batch of sets in! Start the cycle again.

Inspect all onions regularly and use up the ones that are starting to go funny next [rot, mould, or sprouting]

Continuity is always the next step. I can grow pretty much anything, most of it to a good size and most of it too excess. But can I get continuity ? Can i heck !!!! The early stuff comes late, the late stuff comes early. Weather too good, weather too bad !
Once you crack the successional sowing and cropping sorted then you have cracked it all round.
Have a look at some of the posts on here, some of these guys have fresh produce almost every week of the year.
Now that is inspirational !

Thank you both...I am going to try sowing some seed and see how it goes.

If you're doing it now then the stuff to go for is either the real monster varieties (Kelsae, Spanish Giant, Russian Standard, Mammoth etc) or a solid and rather old-fashioned maincrop (Aisla Craig, Sturon, Rjinnsburger etc) .... It's my understanding that most of the F1's are designed to be used direct-drilled outdoors in March so are less suitable (though I stand to be corrected on this).

Use modules so that you don't have to go through a thinning/separating process... 40 or 60 per tray would be normal. For big single onions sow the seeds individually in the modules (jsut barely cover with compost) and they will need some heat to get going (an 8W propagator is plenty or else do them indoors)... once they're up they really don't need any more heat unless it gets really cold, jsut a bright space in the greenhouse. Take care not to overwater and take the usual steps to avoid botrytis.

Once the roots are well established to the bottom of the modules, pot up into small pots or bigger modules (24 or 15 per tray).

To maximise crop weight at the expense of big single onions then start 3-5 seeds in a 24-tray potting on into 15-tray .

chrisc

Thanks Chris thats really useful advice, I have some ailsa craig which a kind grape gave me to try. I also have a small heated propagator on my christmas list...
I have heard talk of starting them on Boxing day!!

One of the Mods will be starting a Allium Sowing thread - so feel free to join in with us. If it's not Piglet Willie, it will be me. Unless Sarz jumps in. Or any other Mod we find loitering on street corners in the meantime.....for now, this is last year's thread:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...etc_25527.html