Know yer onions?

[smallblueplanet]

Just wanted to check - the OH is gonna put in the onion sets, and shallots and garlic (in modules at the mo cos we're late), - its not too early/cold is it?

The onions from seed are still tiny weeney so they can wait.

[pigletwillie]

Put them in as soon as the soil isnt waterlogged. Mine have been in for nearly a month in raised beds where they wont drown. They are very hardy things.

[smallblueplanet]

More hardy than the planter - OH ran for cover as we got some of yesterdays 'nasty' weather!!! Namby-pamby! ;-)

Our soil is pretty good, drains very quickly.

[nick the grief]

SBP, I start mine in cells every year. If needed I pot them up to keep the m growing. It's mainly because I only get to spend 1 day a week on the lottie (sundays) till this time of year when I can get up after work for an hour. It invariaby rains on a Sunday so the damn things would never get planted otherwise!

[smallblueplanet]

When do you plant them nick? Can you keep them in an unheated greenhouse?

We started garlic off in modules this year because we bought them late, never thought of doing it with onion sets. Though we normally start onions from seeds cos we're mean and its easy!!!

[sewer rat]

Sbp
I planted my garlic in 3" pots to get it started then planted out after Xmas. Just now I have my shallots and more recently my onion setts in pots in my unheated greenhouse - this lets the root system develop so they get off to a flyer when the ground conditions are eventually suitable.

[smallblueplanet]

Where is Tain then SR? do you still have glaciers? ;-)

[sewer rat]

Sbp
Tain is 35 miles north of Inverness, on the Dornoch Firth and is just the dog's dangly bits !
Sorry, no glaciers - but Glenmorangie Distillery is about three minutes from my house, so not all bad then !

[smallblueplanet]

So single malt, but no ice? [grin]

[sewer rat]

Single malts should be taken with the same amount of water as whisky - no ice. The water reacts with the whisky and "releases the dragons" allowing the whisky drinker to fully taste and appreciate the variety of flavours and scents that are hidden within the dram until that point.

[Peter]

Rat, have you tried over-witering onions up there?
I find they get going very well as soon as the weather perks up down here.

[Amanda1]

I've planted my onion sets on Sunday (just before the heavy rain and snow!). They weren't started off, just planted as bulbs. My soil is clay and I'm a bit worried they're just going to rot. I found it difficult to get the soil to the consistency recommened (i.e. pushing a finger through flour). I forked over the ground for the onion sets and then pushed them in and for my shallots I troweled out a drill and placed the soil back around. How hardy are onions? Does any else with clay soil have experience of growing them?

[blackkitty]

we have clay soil and I've had reasonable success with shallot and pickling onion sets. I had a panic this year as I did what I'd done last year, which was plant them with their tops about half an inch below the surface at the beginning of Feb. I then read all these bits about leaving the top showing etc. Nothing happened for ages and then about three weeks ago they started coming up. So far I think all of them have sprouted. I didn't worry too much about the soil, just made holes and stuck them in.

[Nicos]

I always found the brown skin onions were more resistent to damp than red on clay soil.Should be ok if they are not in mud as the surface should dry off in the winds and sun( ). Snow is supposed to be a good insulator.

[SueA]

I planted my onion sets out a while ago but I still have a polythene cover over them at the moment but I will take it off as soon as it stops hailstoning/freezing/snowing/chucking it down(rain) etc.