come in a variety of guises, spring, Welsh, shallots, amongst others as well as the large onion itself in different varieties from the huge show ones to the small pickling ones.
For simplicity I shall describe what most people choose when beginning and that is onion sets which are last years specially grown, and then heat treated, babies.
Sets can be planted any time from November to April and early plantings leads to early maturation and cropping and leaves the soil free for different type of crop such as radish or lettuce or even late peas.
I prepare the ground with plenty of manure dug in in the Autumn and on the 29th Jan this year planted 60 sets into a 2.4 x1.2metre bed.
I use the handle of a trowel to make a hole and just cover the bulb as above. I have made sure that I can get the hoe in betwen each row. The left hand shot shows the sets laid out ready for planting. The right shot shows them on 28th March after weeding (bottom left is a close-up.
Don't waste them no matter how small they are.
Make a drill and place the sets in a line so they are touching. In a few weeks time they will provide an early pulling of 'spring onions'
The shot on the right shows mine on 21st March
If you have any gaps in your main bed, just carefully transplant one of your spares to the main bed!
At first glance all looks good with healthy growth, but unfortunately 3 of the 60 onions, that is 5% have produced flower buds which I have nipped off. The bulbs are not big enough to merit harvesting so I am keeping my fingers crossed that not to many follow suit. I presume that it is the dry weather that has caused the problem - I should have watered them.
The 'spring onions' 0n the right are fine and we have already eaten some.
