The Allium Thread

[Snadger]

Can I start off some leeks or is it too early?
I've got really itchy fingers

Of course it's not too early. New Years Day is the traditional time for sowing show leeks!

[Bex]

Of course it's not too early. New Years Day is the traditional time for sowing show leeks!

Thanks Snadger, it will give me something to do tomorrow.

[northepaul]

Just managed to buy some Golden Bear seeds cheaply (£1,45 for a large packet of Kings seeds from the lottie shop)today so hopefully will get them started tomorrow!

Just out of interest, and hope I dont look too naive here but what is the lottie shop you mention? I have seen it in several posts here and there. Is it something all allotments have? Or is it an actual shop?

Thanks

[Snadger]

Just out of interest, and hope I dont look too naive here but what is the lottie shop you mention? I have seen it in several posts here and there. Is it something all allotments have? Or is it an actual shop?

Thanks

Quite a few of the allotments have there own shop. Ours doesn't. but another larger site a couple of miles up the road does.
The shop is actually two large steel shipping containers...............one which stores the compost and parrafin and the other with an array of racking and shelves, old fashioned scales for measuring seed potatoes..........basically everything you would find at a Garden centre at a fraction of the price.
I understand that the profit made at this sites shop manages to subsidise the individual plot rents by about £6 per plot per annum, which although this doesn't sound a lot, on big site is a goodly sum.
They manage to sell Kings seeds at half the packet price .......so just think how much the garden centres must have as a mark up.

The paraffin is at least half the price of GC stuff.

They also get large pallets dropped off for free and the guy who runs the shop strips them down and they sell the long lengths of timber at 50p each for fencing rails.
It usually opens between 11.00am and 1.00pm each day and old Joe the shopkeeper has a plot nearby so he can be available at these times.

I and others try to patronise the shop if at all possible because its cheaper for me and it is keeping a good cause alive

[gojiberry]

Have moved the germinated onion seed out of the propagator but still trying to keep them above freezing point. The onion sets out on the lottie are looking a bit sorry for themselves but then that is no surprise considering the length of sub zero temperatures we have had.
I will be sowing a few leeks this afternoon but will leave the bulk of them till mid Feb. I find that trying to get leeks out to early can result in them going to seed, especially if we have a mild early winter.

Ian

[SarzWix]

I've just sown a half seed tray with Robinson's Mammoth Red Onion seed They're on a heat mat in the porch, but right next to the window, so hopefully that will keep the temp down a little...

[Snadger]

My Golden Bear onion plants are at the 'crookneck' stage now. Sowed 60 seeds in a plug tray and about a dozen have'nt germinated (yet?)

1 seed to a plug and 80% germination aint too bad!

I've taken the clear plastic hood of now because they need as much light as they can get on my bedroom windowsill!

[Bex]

I've had about 80% germination rate too, they are doing ok although I have had a couple wilt and die. I sowed about 80 Marco onion seeds and 50 Red Baron.

I've also sown 3 half trays of leeks, a tray each of Bleu de Solaise (sp?), Apollo and Musselburgh, nothing through yet.

[Pies]

My Golden Bear onion plants are at the 'crookneck' stage now.

Is this were the tip is pointing south? Hope so,as mine are pointing south never seen anything germinate like this

[Incy]

I was planning to move my germinated onion seeds to the unheated greenhouse once they reached the size they are now, but with the temperatures we currently have particularly at night I'm a bit hesitant. Won't -15 c be too cold for them?

[sarraceniac]

I was planning to move my germinated onion seeds to the unheated greenhouse once they reached the size they are now, but with the temperatures we currently have particularly at night I'm a bit hesitant. Won't -15 c be too cold for them?

Knit jackets for them?

[Incy]

Knit jackets for them?

Thanks for the laugh.
Seriously though, I have space in the house but had been advised it was better not to keep them in the warmth too long. As I have never successfully grown from seed before I really don't know what is best for them

[zazen999]

Even an unheated greenhouse should be warmer than the outside air if the door and windows are closed; if it is really that cold, can you pop them in there but with some insulation around it like a little cloche [I got 2 from tescos last year that unzipped so I use them for an extra layer], or an old t-shirt over some wire or something?

[Incy]

Would a fleece work? my cloche is currently frozen to the ground under a layer of snow with some undoubtedly dead lettuce under it
I do have the insides of a mini greenhouse in the GH as staging so could drape the fleece over the shelf pole above and tuck it underneath. This is assuming I can open the door to get in as it may be frozen shut at this point.

[zazen999]

Anything to give an added layer; fleece would be ideal.