Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello am new to the Forum ,I have been unwell over the winter and am late sowing anything ,please do you think I am too late to sow onions this year or should I just stick with my sets when they arrive
many thanks Fuchsia

If you look under 'Best Practices' you'll find a posting about late sowings there.

Hello my dear Fuchsia.
Your certainly not to late sowing onions or any other type of seed this year, as everyone seems to be sowing two to three weeks later this year because of the weather. Everthing will soon catch up once the weather turns nice.
Hope you stay in good health for the rest of the gardening season.

Kind regards old herbaceous.

We will always get some sort of weather.

I sow sets and mine are still in the sacks. Iwill give it a fortnight...if you plant late you crop late.

Thanks everyone for your kind replys .
Fuchsia

Hello Fuschia
I have to disagree with Nog on this one. If you sow late, you crop smaller.
Onions follow the changing season very closely. As the days lengthen they will continue to make more leaf growth but then after the end of June, as the days shorten, the onions will start bulbing up. This is natural to onions and there's nothing you can do about it.
Don't worry though there is still time to sow seed or get your sets planted and you will get good sized onions. We never sow or plant early as you just finish up with over large onions that don't store very well and aren't very useful in the kitchen.

John

Hi Fuchia,
Commercially Onion seeds are sown during February and March inclusively so you have a full two weeks to be within the right period. Outside this period as John says you do end up with a crop of smaller Onions but it doesn't mean that you would get no crop at all.
I used to follow a ritual os sowing on Boxing Day but as there is only me I do not need plenty large Onions I sowed mine the other day. I use my propagator that has no light and as soon as a couple of whispy ones appear I put into the tunnel which is un heated but I just shield with some fleece and within a few days the rest of them germinate and make a showing. I feel that people leave things in their propagators far to long which then puts the plants out of kilter with the prevailing weather.
They then have plants far too advanced for planting out purposes. I feel this is a case where more haste less speed is the answer.

If it's getting too late for conventional onions from seed there is an onion variety which is dual-purpose, that is you can pull it for salad work or leave it in when it is supposed to bulb up.North Holland Blood-red Redmate. I don't know what it would make of the June deadline but you have little to lose, anything onion-like has edible or culinary value. Most of the 'japanese bunching' types will fatten up to a usable size but obviously the result is more like a leek than an onion in shape, still excellent in stir-fries. Try Summer Isle which will be available all-year contrary to its name.
Allan

Allan,
If you would care to look at the sowing advice in most seed catalogues you will note that April is the cut off point for sowing main crop seed. Today being the 15th of March means exactly what I have written and people wishing to do so have another two weeks before the cut off point.
The old variety North Holland Blood Red was a maincrop onion and a very fine onion. They, the seed producers introduced 'Redmate' as a Salad Onion
which has a tendency to bulb up but all those that I have ever grown as salad onions but left in the row have ended up about half the size of a medium sized Shallot so not that bulbing or size.
If you are sowing for the 'showbench' it is a vastly different matter of affairs but remembering the question the enquirer has asked and the answer to that is you have about two weeks to complete the task. Why complicate it all. A simple question only requires a simple answer!

Hello Fuchsia - it was me that put the post on Best Practises about onion seeds and I got loads of good advice. Have started the seeds indoors today and am following the sow a few seeds together and plant them out as a clump method.

I've also got some seeds for Paris Silverskin - the packet says can be grown as salad onions or left to form a small bulb like cocktail onions and the sowing times are from March to July. Anyone tried these before and if so, what is your verdict?

As ever - thanks for your help

Sue

Hello Sue
Paris Silverskin are excellent - well worth growing. Although they are sold for baby onion use, they can be used as salad onion, for pickling and cooking. I've even left them in the ground overwinter sometimes and the frost didn't bother them. They really are a good standby for whenever you need an onion flavour that's not too strong.
The seeds are cheap, germinate quickly and provided you don't sow too thickly, no thinning is needed - I could go on and on! You'll need to sow at several intervals through the season.

John

Once again Johnboy, it's not for you to tell me what to say or not to say. I am in no way contradicting what you have done. If I choose to give additional information it's up to the reader to make what they like of it or ignore it.Also if you persist in making such criticism of my mailings I shall complain to the moderators about your obstructive behaviour.

Thanks John - they sound cool Will get sowing ASAP.

Sue

Fuschia, You could maybe try what I did and that's to sow the seeds individualy into a seed tray insert which has about 40 cells and bring them up until they are "set" size then dry them out and plant them next year. I've done this for two years now and seems to work.

That's an interesting idea and as I have the spare seed I think I'll give it a go.

Thanks