Onions Sets.

I've grown onions from seed for the 1st time this season. Got excellent germination and the Onions I have are extremely healthy but, funny how there is a but! they will not be being mentioned in the giant Onion 2015 post!!!!. Unless they put on huge amounts of girth all of a sudden they really will be pretty meagre. This is probably a bonkers idea but I was wondering if I lift dry and store them once the foliage dies back and then replant them next season as sets whether this would work? I do this with all sorts of ornamental bulbs and it seems plausible but perhaps I'd be best to just accept my rather pathetic efforts and buy sets next season as I don't think the season up here in Scotland is really long enough to grown decent sized bulbs from seed.

 

Thanks @JWK, it sounds plausible in theory and I don't have an awful lot to lose! There are 1 or 2 which are of reasonable size which I'll use the rest aren't quite silver skins but not a kick in the pants off it and I am not peeling 2 dozen of them just to have enough to make a batch of mince! I'll give it a go unless someone advises me I'm going to make a rather feeble effort worse. It just might save me a few bob which is a good thing having just had a VERY expensive visit to a super nursery which had all sorts of goodies...bank balance in tatters

 

Hi Silu , I would leave them in and see if they perk up next year . I only grow onions from sets , and they are very cheap . I get a 1/4 Kg bag from Wilkos for £1.50 which would give you about 100 onions ( I use about half of them ). I grew Struron last year which were a nice size and full of flavour

 

Thanks both. They have started to grow up out of the ground as I knew they would. Do you reckon they will be ok to leave like that as I live in the frozen North!? It would obviously be less work (I have loads of other thing to do ALWAYS)to just leave in situ. Should I maybe cover the exposed bulbs with some compost once they have died down? I grow loads of different Alliums (decorative ones) and they come through the winter no bother but they are all planted reasonably deep. @HarryS would you please stop mentioning Wilkos like loads of others on GC. I don't have a Wikos close by. The nearest is in a shopping centre about 1 1/2 hours drive away. I visited it after all you lot keep getting supplies from their stores. I just about had a stroke as bought loads of stuff and then had to carry it miles back to the car!

 

It will be known as the"W" word from now on Silu I'll ask admin to add it to the swear word filter.....

 

Much appreciated Harry. It's really annoying cos you lot seem to get just about everything from"W". I have to make do with Lidl and Aldi which don't seem to carry the huge range that "W" does.

 

I've got a sneaky suspicion they might just go to seed next year.

Some of my seed grown ones are a bit on the small side at the moment but i'm putting that down to lack of water.
Hose trickling on them now.

I've grown from seed for quite a few years now and have always had a reasonable crop.
I stopped using sets because they always seemed to bolt for me in recent years.

 

I leave them in overwinter if they;re small, they divide into 2 or 3 spring onions, eat em small before they go to seed

 

@pete, thanks for your advice. If I lift them once the foliage dies down then replant next season do you think that would stop them going to seed? bit of a hassle to do it tho.

 

I really dont know is my best answer to that one.

I'm only basing what I said on the fact that onions are kind of biennial so naturally seed the following year after sowing.

Not sure what they do to onion sets to stop them bolting in the second year, some kind of heat treatment maybe, but whatever it is I was increasingly finding it wasn't working and mine were mostly bolting.
Might be my dryer summer conditions as I only water when absolutely necessary.

 

Not quite the same situation, and this is from memory. My Dad used to save his largest (Kelsae) onions and plant them up in pots in the spring in his greenhouse. The first thing they did was to send up a few leaves, and then flower (bolt)soon afterwards from which he would save the seed. In short, I think they'll bolt. Having said that, I think you'll still have something 'useable', so worth a go

 

Silu, I think you might be happy when you learn that WILKOS delivers. Have fun.

I am very new to gardening so I'm sorry if this is a dump question, but what does it mean when a crop 'bolts'?

 

@pete

Some companies supply heat treated sets. They heat the sets to kill off the flower bud in the centre. The heat treated sets are more expensive than the normal ones though.
The trick with sets and seeds is to keep them growing steadily without any checks, that might fool them into thinking they've had 1 growing season. For example a warm March followed by a cold snap in April, or a dry spell after they've started into growth. The latter is easier to deal with.