Kitchen Garden Forum

Just been online looking for autumn onion & shallot sets & garlic. Nearly all are saying out of stock, some not until I reach checkout -Grrr! I just want one delivery if possible but haven't checked IOW garlic so that could come separately. I want a brown, red & white onions & a long shallot. (I found 7 shallot for £13.99 - taking the proverbial there)!

Any suggestions?

Have a look in your local wilkies they have them in later in the year but I don't know how early

I bought mine on the 4th September last year, delivered 8th, planted 15th from Premier Seeds Direct. I don't use shallot sets but the onions were Senshyu Yellow and Shakespeare and the garlic was Messidrome - all have done very well, particularly pleased with the garlic, much cheaper than the IOW rip off merchants. You can get to Premier in several ways; direct, Amazon and eBay - I usually use eBay. They haven't got everything in stock yet but be a little patient and you should get everything in plenty of time at good prices.

Westi

I am surprised at you. How often do we tell people not to be so anxious when it comes to premature planting.

There is a message in the fact that recent posts by others have also had difficulty in finding both garlic bulbs & onion sets.

Having been trained by Sherlock Holmes all of these places showing "Out of Stock" leads me to deduce that its too damn soon.

There will be plenty in the shops at sensible prices soon, shock horror there will also be some available online.

I bought my garlic and shallot sets only recently from DT Brown - perhaps they are still in stock, Westi?

Why don't you save your own garlic? You can choose a few good bulbs with enough cloves for how many you need. I do the same with shallots but might have to buy some new stock this year as the shallots have really struggled with the weather this summer.

I usually see what Wilko have in stock as Robo suggests. If you want specific varieties you usually do have to pay more as a rule.

Pa! Being organised for once & got all these e-mail offers which clearly said delivery won't be until late September but sites didn't show them as in stock so then panicked, but ordered anyway for late September delivery but order was rejected - as out of stock! The thing is some showed in stock - you don't think they will throw them into the new mix do you?

Monika have they delivered? Are they being delivered later? That was not the site I decided upon!

PP my garlic looked grand but only 1/2 cloved so a rouge gene in them somewhere - probably called Beast from the East which should have helped but hindered! I've got elephant garlic without even trying! Which has already rotted btw!

Geoff I will look at that site - that's one that didn't come up!

Cheers Guys! Will wait & be tardy, it somehow works better for me! Except the Chinese grown garlic - that was a disaster! Still got the cute little lucky token thing they throw in the packet just to remind me never to buy from there again!

Premier also tend to do a good seed deal around Black Friday (23rd November) that is worth looking out for (as do DTB).

Cheers Geoff!

Perhaps try your local garden centre. I sent email asking if they will have autumn onions & garlic and got this reply “they are currently on order and should be with us by the end of the month but give us a ring to check before visiting”.

We are lucky we have a none profit making bunch of volunteers run a place called the hut it's in Newton is willows around three miles from our allotments they take orders for onion sets ,garlic, and potato sets among other things they are the cheapest place around ,people take things in they don't want or have to many of including seedlings ,plant pots and all sorts of things

I have just realised the stupidity of my own remarks about garden centres having Onion sets & Garlic & Shallots on sale soon when overwintering stock becomes available, stupid idiot that I am had not taken into account the limited space those outlets will have due to the non horticultural Christmas stock of decorations and trees which will no doubt start appearing soon at a garden centre near you. This will of course result in taking up available space.

Westi, you asked about the delivery: no, they are due to be delivered the end of September. I prefer it that way because these commercial outfits can store things in much more appropriate conditions than I can. So, when they arrive at the end of September, I can plant them almost immediately.

Went to a Wilko today for soft brown string, almost all the gardening shelves were empty.

Geoff wrote:Went to a Wilko today for soft brown string, almost all the gardening shelves were empty.

Toys and decorations time then