2013 Onion Growing Challenge

So - you're up,up and away FC. I am still being "sensible" and making myself wait until March

 

Well done FC, looking good

 

No-one?

 

Nice sprouts FC......
Seriously....looking good

 

Hiya John.

Currently, daylight starts at around 7am here. It's dark by around 6:15pm. My lighting comes on at 1pm and goes off at 10pm. My thinking there was to supplement and extend normal daylight. So, that makes a total of 15 hours of varying degrees of light. At some point, they will have to go without supplemental light, and this is the part that concerns me. They will go from 15 hours of light to whatever the daylight hours are at the time, maybe 10 hours?

My thinking was that if I reduce the 'lit-up' time bit by bit (in line with the lengthening days) it wouldn't come as big a shock when the lighting is no longer available.

Maybe I gave them too much light to start with?

 

Hiya John, an interesting read, thanks.

This part got me thinking...

Maybe instead of reducing the amount of time the lighting is switched on, I could maybe re-align the timing? For instance, to start with I could have the lighting come on at say mid-day and turn off at 9pm. If I did this in stages until it was in line with the 'normal' daylight hours, that might work? What do you think?

 

How I used to set my light timing was as follows;

I looked at sunrise / sunset times in my diary and set my timer to come on two hours before sunrise and go off two hours after sunset.

Rather than change the set up daily I would do it once a week which I found much easier.

My lights remained on all day because because we seem to get more overcast days rather than sunny/ bright weather.

If I was around on a sunny day I would sometimes over ride the settings and switch off!

 

Hiya Tee Gee.

The problem I have with having them come on early, is that the lighting disturbs my neighbours sleep! Also, this doesn't address my concerns about what will happen when the lighting is no longer available, which sooner or later, is inevitable.

Cheers...Freddy

 

Maybe these concerns are unfounded?

It's just that I recall something Kristen said, about Onions reacting to shorter days by 'bulbing' up

 

As someone who doesn't use artificial lighting, I can't really give any advice other than why use it unless you can maintain it? It's not necessary unless you are very serious about growing monsters! In which case you have all manner of other considerations to take into account, planting out, feeding.... the list goes on.

Yes, I'd love to grow a huge onion on the scale of Peter Glazebrook but there is a limit to the amount of steak and onions I can eat!