Over-wintered onions. Harvest?

[gojiberry]

Mine are about golf ball size so I will start using them from now till they are all used up. I'm lucky that so far none have gone to seed and they are growing at quite a good rate.

Ian

[SarzWix]

Mine got brown skins last year... Depends if you leave 'em long enough to dry out or not! If you need to use them they're fine just pulled up and used as they are, but you can leave them til the tops die down naturally and dry them out. They won't store for as long as spring planted ones, but they will keep for a little while.

[pinkprincess]

i harvested the first of mine an hour ago and just made some homemade onion jam-hmm

[fran]

That sounds yummy. You're quick off the block then! Thanks for all the good advice! Franx

[Emmylou]

My autumn onion sets have hardly any fattening to the bulbs, definately not onion sized yet.......they did get a bit waterlogged last winter. Do they need a feed of something?

[bobleponge]

I have pulled the first 20 odd over the last few days and have pickled them.
I am now using the largest ones straight from the garden, as they are big enough, and
I am hoping to have enough to last till my summer ones are big enough.
Got some red ones that I am waiting for though, for my onion marmalade.

[zazen999]

Mine got brown skins last year... Depends if you leave 'em long enough to dry out or not! If you need to use them they're fine just pulled up and used as they are, but you can leave them til the tops die down naturally and dry them out. They won't store for as long as spring planted ones, but they will keep for a little while.

Good point, mine never make it that far as they get used up during late spring.

[Glaurung]

I pulled half a dozen of mine yesterday & had a cracking onion soup. First time I've grown them & I noticed the necks are much thicker than summer onions, so I guessed they won't store as well. Hopefully I'll have enough to last through 'till the others are ready.

[nmayhew]

sowed onion seed last autumn in nice raised beds, and not one of them grew

red baron i think - what a waste of time and shan't be doing that again!

our onions and garlic from sets are going great guns tho...

[zazen999]

sowed onion seed last autumn in nice raised beds, and not one of them grew

red baron i think - what a waste of time and shan't be doing that again!

our onions and garlic from sets are going great guns tho...

Sow in modules, and plant out in the spring. Ours sown from seed last autumn are now an inch thick at the base and bulbing up nicely.

[Two_Sheds]

My autumn sets are all bolting... and are just big spring onion size too.
The year before I grew Keepwell autumn onions from seed, and they were much better: proper brown onions and they kept well too!

[jackie j]

I dont know why but I havent grown onions from seed, so far I have bought sets and planted them to overwinter ( 2nd year of doing this ). For some reason I am scared of the seeds failing.

[zazen999]

My autumn sets are all bolting... and are just big spring onion size too.
The year before I grew Keepwell autumn onions from seed, and they were much better: proper brown onions and they kept well too!

I've been harvesting for 2 weeks now, some are bolting [well, flowering as it is their 2nd year so its not their fault ]...but I am nipping out the heads and eating those first.

They are in clay, with no added anything [spuds were grown in there last year] and I 'fingered' them about 6 weeks ago and they started swelling shortly afterwards. We also hoe them regularly which loosens the soil.

Weird how some grow and some don't.

[Emmylou]

I've been harvesting for 2 weeks now, some are bolting [well, flowering as it is their 2nd year so its not their fault ]...but I am nipping out the heads and eating those first.

They are in clay, with no added anything [spuds were grown in there last year] and I 'fingered' them about 6 weeks ago and they started swelling shortly afterwards. We also hoe them regularly which loosens the soil.

Weird how some grow and some don't.

I have got lots of onions from autumn planted sets as I didn't realise they don't store so well. None are looking big enough to harvest, or doing much swelling.
What do you mean by "fingering" them?
I'm hoping they will swell to a useable size before they flower or we've got a lot of spring onions to use!

[zazen999]

fingering
loosening the soil around them so they can grow, esp important in clay soil as the clay hardens over the winter. I use a weedfabric peg usually. They then absorb the spring rains and bulk up.