Onions when do plant yours.

[Tractor Boys]

This is my 3rd season on the lotty and the more I read the more paranoid I get in my first season just bunged it and hoped for the best.

Have just read that planting summer onions too early will cause them to bolt as they are two year plants intially concentrate on sending up leaves and then when a critical day length is reached in late spring the process of bulb formation is triggered.

In the second year the plant sends up flowers and sets seeds if sown too early onion plants mistake cold weather in spring as winter causing them to bolt.

The book says plant your onions out as early as possible to make strong plants by mid spring but not too early to avoid bolting.

But when do I plant them ???

[selfraising]

I have planted my onion sets in pots in the gh. Once they start throwing up shoots and the ground is less frozen I will put them in. Did the same last year and had no problems.

[COMPOST CORNER]

I put my "Rossa Lunga di Firenze" seeds in yesterday.
But I've never grown onions from seed before so don't take that as a recommendation

[chriscross1966]

If you grow from seeds they never bolt, and it gives you something to grow in the greenhouse in January ... Start off with the biggies like Kelsae, then the standard mains like Sturon then the cluster mains (Long Red Florence for me) then the picklers (SY300)... You get a bigger choice with seeds than sets though I can understand people using them for the simplicity.

chrisc

[Paulottie]

If you grow from seeds they never bolt

chrisc

'fraid that is not true, plus they are more susceptible to onion fly.

Cheaper, Yes....More choice...Yes.

You are fine to sow seed now (indoors only this year I'd guess). Hold off with sets till March.

Can't see the point of starting sets in pots.

[Two_Sheds]

Have just read that planting summer onions too early will cause them to bolt

It can do, if they receive uneven temps, esp. a cold snap after a warm spell. Bolting happens later in a plant's life, but it is initiated early on.

Your onion needs to put on as much growth as possible before midsummer, so get them started but try and keep your baby onions at an even temp (cold greenhouse) until the weather evens out a bit: then you can plant out (March).