2013 Onion Growing Challenge

Hello chums.

Slightly off-thread. Vince kindly sent me some Long Red Florence onion seed. Any thoughts on the best way to sow/grow them? I was thinking of sowing 3 seed to a pot or cell, and planting them out 'as is', maybe 6" apart.

Cheers...Freddy

 

Hey Freddy, I sow and grow them exactly as I do my Kelsae's! Plant out at 8" apart, they can get quite big!

They have a flavour to die for, raw or cooked, very sweet and tasty.

 

Really? For some reason I assumed they were a bit like shallots. Right-o, I'll treat them as 'regular' onions

 

I made that mistake too Freddy, no longer!

 

Well I've potted on the first lot of my Bedfordshire champs
No sign of the aisla Craig's yet but I've just sown a load in modules in heated prop see how they get on

 

Hello Chums

Well, I've just potted up 25 Kelsae into 4" pots using a 50/50 mix of JI No 2 and MP. I've put them back into the propagator and there they will stay for the next couple of weeks, at which time I'll start to take them out during the day, replacing in the propagator for the night. Hopefully, better weather isn't too far away, so I will be able to leave them out day and night after that. It's getting pretty close to sowing time for my toms, so pretty soon I'm going to need the space in the propagator, same old problem! As I plan to have 18 plants in my 8'x4' raised bed, that leaves me with 7 spares and will therefore give me a choice come planting time. Comments/advice welcome

Cheers...Freddy

 

IT'S ONIONS FC...NOT SPROUTS.....

 

Ahh, maybe I wasn't clear. When I said "out during the day", I meant out into my un-heated greenhouse (the propagator is in there).

 

I do however see a problem on the horizon. At some stage they will have to go without lighting. At the moment I am lighting between 1pm and 10pm. The moment I take them out permanently it will be back to normal daylight hours. As I understand it, onions start to 'bulb up' once they detect shorter days, yes? With this in mind, I thought I'd start to lessen the hours of lighting, bit by bit, starting today. My cunning plan is to reduce by around 10 minutes a day (or every other day), taking into account that the days are now getting longer. Any thoughts?

 

I'm stuffed then as I leave the light on all night

Pickling Kelsae anyone?

 

Hiya Zigs ol' chum.

I would say it's not as straight forward as that. I think it all depends on the amount of light they are currently getting, and the amount and quality you can give them later on. Mine get 500w of light for 9 hours, but the rest of the time (maybe 6 hours) the light is fairly poor. Also temps make a difference. It's not easy!