Kitchen Garden Forum

Out of mild interest. Has anyone tried growing there own onion sets. ! and did you have any success.

never tried this so can't comment

I haven't intentionally but have had some littlins drop off the drying frame. They always bolt so wouldn't consider it but these escapees keep the bees happy.

I don't know how you would heat treat them to prevent this but bet it is on the internet somewhere.

Westi

I confess I wouldn't,t know howmto produce onion sets. Nonenof my matured summer onions have ever produced sets/babies . Or do you just grow onions from seed and stop them and dry them at a certain point for planting later.?

Onion sets are produced by raising onion seedlings and then arresting and / or impeding their development in some way. One technique is simply to raise onions in conditions so lacking in nutriment that they stay small by growing them in sand, for instance, which is more or less how they are produced commercially in southern Europe / north Africa. Growing teeny onions isn't so hard, but they are inclined to flower once they are grown on the following season this is rather difficult to prevent. Heat-treatment hinders this, whereby the sets are stored in stifling temperatures for sufficient length of time to kill off the nascent flower bud. This is the reason why quality onion sets are sent out quite late in the season, simply because they need to have been heat-treated for long enough. Red onions do not respond well to heat-treatment which is why they tend to bolt so readily when grown from sets. Red onions are over-rated anyway, in my view. They have exactly the same flavour and characteristics as brown onions, except that they go grey when cooked.

I simply don't bother with sets at all.