Garlic/Onion - Autumn or Spring?

[Eyren]

I buy my stock in a Brittany market. (won't pay Isle of Wight price)

I think it would work out a bit expensive if I went all the way to Brittany to buy my garlic

Thanks for the other tips! I wish I had space for regular onions as well as all the other alliums, but I don't have time for a bigger plot (not that there are any available on our site)

[pigletwillie]

I buy my garlic in France too and generally bring back three varieties, an average cost is 6.50 euro a string of a dozen bulbs (at least).

The garlic is ALWAYS planted in autumn as spring planted just does not get anywhere as big, plus it benefits from cold.

My banana shallot seed is open pollinated as is my rose de roscoff onion seed but banana shallots are not like traditional picklers and are a premium kitchen product to grow. Unless you want to show shallots, sets are a cheaper, easier and more prolific option than F1 seed with the added bonus that you can save sets for the following year.

As for onions, we only ever plant sets in the spring, or sow seed in December. Autumn varieties whilst coming that month early, block ground that could be planted with longer keeping spring sown ones and to be honest, how many onions will you eat in that month where there is a gap? A string of onions that will last till April are much more useful to me than a net of ones that wont last till autumn.

[Cutecumber]

I have chosen shallot seed this year, rather than sets. I'll explain why...

I'm no exhibitor (or should I say exhibitionist ) but I have had some very strange things happen with shallots in the past. I've used fairly ordinary types such as Red Sun and Sante, however, there has been enormous variation in yield. One year I got 12 bulbs from one set, last year I had several with just two (large, but not what I wanted).

The problem with this is that I have very little bed space and use a lot of containers to supplement this. When the sets produced small quantities I have felt as if it was a waste of space. I've done catch cropping, but it's a struggle to keep things watered.

So, I have acquired myself some F1 shallot seed - I'll use as much as I can and see how it works out before returning to sets if necessary.

So far I am happy - germination is excellent, transplanting easy and growth steady. When I pot them up it means I can space the shallots out in a container and make the best use of it rather than keeping my fingers crossed or shoving in a catch crop just in case.

We'll see how things proceed through the season - it could all be a complete disaster!

By the way, the seeds are Ambition, Matador and Prisma. I sowed from late Feb to mid March and so far, they are fairly similar.

[pigletwillie]

I have personally grown prisma and can honestly say they give very even sized bulbs that store well.

As we grow banana shallots for the kitchen and bog standard sets for pickling or just dropping in stews the better yield from sets meant we have gone back to them. With the F1 seed there is no doubting your crop, one seedling equals one bulb and if you have limited space there is a bonus in that.

[Cutecumber]

Yes, I remember you had grown Prisma.

I may well return to sets, but it's a good experiment and I think I know what I'm doing...

[pigletwillie]

You at least will know what suits you sir best, sets or seeds.

Everybodies situations are different and a large part of the gardening challenge is to work to that.

[Paulottie]

Seem to get more fly probs with seed sown onions than sets..perhaps it is just me.

Obviously We have a family pad in France. I don't just go for garlic...I go for the abuse from the in-laws!

Don't find that Japanese onions store that badly..at least till Xmas...of course it is all in the drying. just like to have something growing in winter and I use the freed space for lettuces and pak choi etc afterwards. Space not really an issue these days with 2 plots! but as you say PW it is a matter of sorting out a cycle that suits you.

[veg4681]

Thanks for your all your inputs, I've summarised as follows that I will use for my personal allium growing regime:

Garlic - Autumn planted (bigger fatter juicy garlic )

Onion - Spring planted onion sets or Winter sown onion seeds (stores better)

Shallot - Spring planted shallot sets (too few shallot seeds available with smaller crop)

[Farmer_Gyles]

Are there any varieties of onion that will allow me to sow in spring, harvest in autumn and then plant immediately in the vacant bed to harvest in spring??
therefore 2 crops per year from the same land?