Satisfaction starts now

Kitchen onions growing outside. From sets and also from seed with marigolds as companion plants. The middle pic is also from seed but grown in the polytunel. Shows the difference a bit of heat and shelter makes.

Excuse the inclusion of the bottom pic. Uploaded that by mistake but it has attached itself. Any guidance as to how to detach it?

Hmmm. That's quite a long-winded process! You have to 'Edit Post', then click 'Go Advanced' then scroll down to 'Manage Attachments', wait for it to load up the pics, then hover the mouse over the one you want to remove and an 'X' appears in the right-corner of the pic to delete it...

Lovely onions though Mine are all getting thick necks again

Okies, I'll give that a go. ta. Now in exchange, don't worry too much about thick necks. Don't necessarily leave them in the ground to try to get the biggest onions possible. Better to harvest when there is still a realistic prospect of getting them dry. Leave them lying on the ground for a day or two after you lift them, then cut off the leaves three inches or so above the bulb and set them on a bed of sawdust in a dark but airy and well ventilated shed. Put an oscillating fan on them if you have one. If you give them plenty of time, the necks will dry off and slim down to almost nothing.


edit. You sweetie, you did it for me

Should have explained about the brassicas growing among the onions in the tunnel. Cauli plants left over filling a space where there were onion casualties. It isn't a companion plant thing, just utilising space

Great onions ~ what's your secret? What feeding/watering regime do you use, what soil are they growing in?

Under 250 gm onions for showing in this variety - tasco need to be lifted at 10.75 inches circumference. A sigh of relief every time that target gets reached without a calamity. The other pic is of pak choi at my tunnel door. Those are the thinnings planted out but maybe not the best idea if this plant is prone to bolting as it is quite warm in that area. First time I've grown it. I feel like Forest Gump and the life is like a box of chocolates. If I get something from the crop it will have been worth it but if not, I'll have learned to do it differently next time.

Wow, simple question long explanation. Firstly, they are striking because of their uniformity but that is really down to the choice of variety, in this case tasco are the small ones and the bigger ones are the Sifford strain derived from kelsae which presently holds the world record and the sifford ones are grown from pips.

The sifford ones were started off under lights with heat back in November and have been grown on firstly in ordinary gp compost but later into a 50:50 mix of gp with john innes 3 with vermic and slow release fertiliser added. An occasional feed of liquid seaweed whilst in the pots the final size of which were two litre. The soil in the tunnel is nothing special(with fym under) except that I threw out what was there a few years back and imported fresh white rot free soil(I will have to repeat that process some time in the future I know)

Planted into the tunnel in late April and only water since, no other feed. Watered daily in the warm days but I will skip watering if it is dull and over cast. They are only about 17" circumference and hopefully will grow to 24"-25". I will post more pics later.

The tasco onions were grown from seed sown in January started off under lights with artificial heat and again planted into the tunnel in late April. Their final pots were 4" ones. keeping them weeded is the big battle but again, they are very uniform which is why they look so good.

Variety selection as I said is key, I've just nursed them along

Fantastic AP! Thanks for that, you certainly know your onions.