Preparing Onions for Storage

Dont take no notice of the micky takers mate, I've always found you polite and helpfull.

I've been out in the rain and checked the spacing of my onions, first the 50 odd setts from poundland....


they seemed ok










Then I checked my picking onions, no problems there












Then I checked the 40 odd that I grew from seed, they seem ok






But to my horror I found 6 onions that were deffo to close to each other







I put them on my patch of burnt grass as you say......





How long should I leave them there oh wise wise ziggy


Kind Regards, Plant Potty.:WINK1:

 

Oh no, I hope you dont think I was ganging up with Dai.:D

My main concern was that any one a bit new to onion growing might just race outside and dig all their onions up thinking now was the time.

I've never thinned onions, I always planted sets at the desired growing distance.

These days I only grow from seed as I like the sweet type onions for salads, you cant get sets I dont believe.
I do plant 3 or 4 seeds at each station in one of those divided seed trays on Feb, then plant out about 9ins apart or so.
They push one another away as they grow and produce some nice sized onions.
I never lift until the tops are almost dead.

 

Ok serious question in amongst the banter if you pull onions to early, i.e still green and healthly do the stems sap the moisture out of the bulb so it can keep growing?
Mrs Chopper

 

:D

Very good point Pete TBH I didn't think cheapo sets would get as big as they have, expected them to bolt, only 1 did though.

I did grow some red salad onions from sets a few years ago, can't remember the variety exactly but red baron is springing to mind.

 

Not sure, but I tend to think not, being a bulb rather than a root.

Once the roots stop working I would think the top would die back and the bulb would firm up. Similar to when grown in dry conditions.

Ziggy, I've grown "Supersweet" from T&M for the last 5 yrs, milder than "Redbaron", ideal for winter salads and sandwiches.

 

I also plant them at the proper spacing, why waste onions by " thinning out "?

 

What are you feeding them with Zig?

 

If the packet said plant at 4" spacings and I followed that instruction, what else could I do when nearly every onion was 4" wide

I want to enter some of these at the show, wouldn't look very good if they had 2 flat sides would they now ?:DOH:

Haven't wasted the carrots, pak choi & beetroot that i've thinned out either, it all gets eaten.:D

Off to watch Doctor Who now, at least he has another dimension to let his onions grow into, i'm limited to just the three i'm afraid:DOH:

 

Pete, if you want a milder onion flavour, why not grow Banana Shallots?

 

Just the general home made plant food, not got down to the beach recently to get any seaweed.

How did you get on with the not taking seaweed off the beach references David ? Did I miss that post ?

 

I couldn`t find it. Anyway, feed your onions with a high nitrogen feed for the next two weeks, then switch to a high potash feed.

 

I pulled all mine up just before we went away and they have the same growth like Ziggys and they are now in the greenhouse drying out on my slatted staging.If I had left them in the ground any longer they would have started rotting with all the rain we now have.I have always pulled mine up when i feel they are ready and have never had any problems with them rotting in storage and we just finished the last ones off from last year while we were away last week:D

I think a lot of it also depends on where you live in the country as those who live down South and in the South West are going to be harvesting their crops before those of us who live in the Midlands or those up North

 

I've never grown Onions before until this year and have noticed some of the stems have bent down to ground. Does this mean they are ready to be harvested or should I still wait until they flower (I read this on the back of the packet, so please excuse my ignorance)?