Biggest Onion Competition!

By the sound of it you should be growing some silver skin pickling onions Tweaky.

Mine are pretty rubbish this year too,be lucky if they make 3 lbs.

 

Hi Dan. Oh dear ! Just caught up with your blog :( I know gardening can do this to us, but it was obvious that you were very enthusiastic. Ah well, next year eh ? Cheers...freddy.

 

Dan can you confirm to me (being an onion expert and all) are the bulbs supposed to sit above the soil? My red onions grew below and i've pulled most now which are small but they will do for salads, just want to know for next year!

 

Well,there you go, a combination of poor plants purchased (Never Again from them !!) a hopeless Summer and an unprecedented invasion of Thrips,my 1st one ever,and unbeleivably devastating, has resulted in a proper rubbish big onion bash this year.

Typical I suppose as this is my first year of my blog too.

They were going pretty well apart from the odd double necked one up until about a fortnight ago and then the thrips appeared.

Never had 'em before and don't want 'em again.

They've just ravaged everything in the tunnel.

Any one of the last 10 years onion growing attempts would have looked great for the blog.

Anyway next year I'm going for the reliable "Kelsae" not enormous but ever reliable and can get to 5-6 lbs given a bit of luck and some sunshine (Pleeeeeease next year !!)

And I may have found a guy who can supply me with a few humungous plants in January,his are 30+ inches in circumference,no bull,I've seen a photo.

Fingers crossed on that one !!

P.S AndyK,I'm no expert,anyway .onions should be grown at ground level or the base about an inch below the soil.

I.e plant sets so the tip is just level with the soil surface or you can plant them half way in,sow seed about 5-10 mm deep or replant plants at the same depth as they were growing or a little deeper,maybe half an inch max.

Then leave them be,Don't earth them up like leeks as this will only add to any potential mould or rot problems.


Anyway I concede defeat on this years competition as this is the biggest and it won't get much bigger.

Probably 2lb max.



And the first time you see any of these then get some biological controll in the form of predatory mites otherwise once they get established you can't get rid of them for love nor money.

So if you see any little white streaks on your leaves have a close look and take action pretty sharpish.

P.S these thrips are on a leaf that's only as thich as a pencil so you can see how tiny they are.

 

Hi Dan, just a thought. Is it possible that growing under cover might have in some way contributed to your problems ? What I'm thinking is, that one usually gets different pests in the greenhouse compared to outdoors, maybe it's a predator thing. Like I said, just a thought ( I don't really have a clue ) Cheers...freddy.

 

Oh absolutely.
No doubt the fact that they are grown under cover does cause a few more problems,especially this year with the cold wet weather,everything seems to have been seeking refuge in my tunnel.
All my normal onions outside are fine as far as pests go.
The trouble is I don't have an alternative as my garden is in a really exposed,windy place so I couldn't hope to grow a big 'un outside as they need to be planted out in April and it snowed here this year in May..
I'll just have to introduce some beneficial bugs next year as a precaution.

 

Hi Dan. I seem to remember my father used to produce his own onion seed from Kelsae . Not sure how exactly he did this but I can remember him gathering the seed from the heads. He used to grow some whoppers. I guess he used seed saved from his biggest ? Anyway, thought about doing that ? Cheers...freddy.

 

That's it.

I've pulled 5 of my smaller better shaped ones to dress later for our show.

No monsters,just about 2lbs.pretty pathetic really.

At least I've managed to salvage something from this years disaster though I suppose..

Still got one about 3 lbs+ growing in the tunnel,I'll leave it to see how big it gets.

 

They are a nice uniform size, Seems a poor year for onions in general.

 

Well I didn't manage to grow any monsters this year but did win the Onion Cup at our local Horticultural Show for the 1st time ever today.

Well chuffed.

 

From the look of those, deservedly. well done.

 

All that moaning.....and he wins ! :D:D:D

 

Congratulations Dan! They look great :thumb:

2009 is the year to win the Giant Onion Contest.

 

A lot of hard work has paid off for your Dan. Well done..
robert