Onion Growing 2024

Well this thread really does tell me I am so far behind. For a variety of reasons I am sowing onion seeds now. One says to wait 6-8 weeks before transplanting out. We have to sow indoors as our heavy clay soil does know what warm enough for sowing outdoors means. Didn't do so late last year but still late and we did have a good harvest. Fingers crossed.

 

Not too late, start them indoors and plant out as soon as you can handle them. If you multi sow (3-5 seeds ) in modules then you can plant them out in clumps once you see roots emerging at the holes at bottom. They will self space; you may select odd ones to harvest in June, giving the others more room to mature.

 

Now is about the time you can sow outside as well. Inside is more reliable for me too, I do the same with modules, I like three per station at harvest time but you can pick any excess as spring onions earlier. If growing spring onions you can grow ten per module fine

Last year my seeds were thoroughly unsuccessful but luckily the best time to plant sets is mid to late April so there's always that option too

I planted out my onions a week ago, they are under fleece.

 

Last of my shallots from last year, might re plant them. They were from spring planted sets and one of them was a zebrune from seed

 

We have shallots ready to go but no chance in our garden at the moment. Heavy clay soil and so much rain we cannot get onto the veg patch to do what is needed. Heaving down as now.

 

Growing 4 varieties this year all from seeds, Stuttgart, While Lisburn Bunching, Walla Walla, and Ramrod.

Stuttgart was sown in January and transplanted early March, it's not doing too bad, grew them from onion set last year and they didn't do too well, I remember them being pricy too - mind a lot of veg didn't do too well for me last year.

White Lisburn Bunching is being grown mainly for using the tops, I use them in salads, quiches, and soups. The seeds are about 3 years old and have germinated well, maybe too well as they'll need pinching out, I was trying to use up the seeds.

Walla Walla, I've not grown this variety before, in fact I've never heard of it. It's an old variety apparently, selected for its sweetness, jumbo size and round shape - we'll have to see. Seedlings now transplanted and appear to be ok.

Ramrod, not grown this one ether before. TBH I'm not sure where it is, I know I've popped the seeds in a container to sprout somewhere. Ramrod is a salad onion and I believe is winter hardy.

 

Worth planting, they'll probably flower (I like onion flowers) and then you'll get loads of seeds for next year and a couple of years to come.

 

Shallots are just showing and I shall put some of the Onions grown from seed out tomorrow into the raised bed, keep the smaller ones back just in case, they can go in after a week or so if the weather is ok.

 

Some onions seedlings are ready to plant out but the shallots were planted out last week and hopefully all doing well as under a mesh to stop the birds pulling them up. Will check tomorrow weather permitting.

 

My planted onions looking a bit bedraggled. Going to buy some sets this week to plant I think

 

Suggest you give your onion seedlings a liquid feed to get them going, seaweed - based would be my choice.

 

If they are seedlings I would not give up on them, they often look awful for a couple of weeks when first planted out.

 

Yes they look quite weak. Although some of the spring onions I sowed and planted at the same time look much better. I think they are a different species though? Maybe they do better earlier on than normal onions

I'll maybe start some sets in modules and plant them out in a couple of weeks if the seedlings haven't improved.

 

Bought giant stuttgarter sets from local garden centre as a backup, I just filled a tray with compost and planted them into that for now. Will see in a couple of weeks if I need them

 

Planted out the onion seedlings this morning. Poor germination but nearly a row.