Kitchen Garden Forum

Just wondering the best time to plant onions grown from seed.
Do you just wait until soil is warm enough or do you wait for
a little bump at the base. The ones I have are about 3" or so
high sitting merrily in an unheated greenhouse and bed is ready
when they are.

Thanks Westi

My onions, sown in rootrainers on 6 February, have been outside during the day for the last week or so and I intend to plants them fully outside under fleece soon. The forecast for early next week is cold easterly winds with snow and sleet for us, however, so I might hang on for a bit longer.

I usually keep the fleece on until they are well established and well rooted, so there is less danger of them being pulled out by birds as well as being sheltered from the bad weather.

I think I plant them by weather rather than size but they are still grass like rather than with bulbs showing. I sometimes fleece them if it turns nasty but I grow them several to a small square pot and plant them as they are without disturbance and they don't seem to get pulled up. Mine are also in cold greenhouse at the moment, sown February 13th. I don't know how far ahead of me you are, probably at least two weeks, here are my dates this century :
2000 22/4
2001 28/4
2002 5/5
2003 18/4
2004 24/4
2005 28/4
2006 29/4
2007 3/5
2008 22/4
2009 7/4 - that seems an odd one