Spring onions - what am I doing wrong?

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by Fat Controller, May 18, 2014.

  1. Fat Controller

    Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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    For the past three years, I have attempted to grow spring onions, and I am yet to have anything edible. I have tried again this year and so far I have a few seeds that have reached the crook stage, but little else and certainly nothing like the amount of seeds I have sown.

    I am following the packet instructions (direct sow), they are in fresh MPC, in a nice sunny spot and are watered regularly.

    What I am I doing wrong?
     
  2. Scrungee

    Scrungee Well known for it

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    I've found they never grow properly in MPC, and if started off as bunches in cell trays need planting out in open ground.
     
  3. Palustris

    Palustris Total Gardener

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    Fret not, I have been trying to grow Spring onions for over 40 years now and I have never even managed to get a single seed to germinate.
    I can grow every other kind of Allium from seed, but not those.
     
  4. HarryS

    HarryS Eternally Optimistic Gardener

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    I love spring onions . So I attempted to grow them in MPC on a container , results were thin and straggley . So after about 3 attempts I gave up and buy lovely bunches from the supermarkets.
     
  5. bexy13

    bexy13 Stay calm and eat cucumber!

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    My spring onions have come along nicely. I sow mine in individual pots and sow 2 to a pot that way they compete and you only get the nicest onions. However you have to keep a steady 25-30 degrees c for them to germinate. Not too late for a second sowing :D

    Hope it helps
    Bex
     
  6. Susieshoe

    Susieshoe Gardener

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    What's MPC????

    I can't seem to grow them either :( Managed a measly bunch last year - not worth the effort tbh :(
    However, my alliums seed themselves everywhere and do well so I'm at a loss as to why spring onions are so fussy
     
  7. Scrungee

    Scrungee Well known for it

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    Multi purpose compost, stuff with peat or composted green waste/coir/wood/etc. (rather than a soil based) for sowing seeds, cuttings, transplanting.
     
  8. silu

    silu gardening easy...hmmm

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    I don't understand this gardening malarkey. I have absolutely no problems growing Spring Onions just hurl the seed in deep container so I don't need to transplant them (too fiddly a job) and up they come without fail, yet don't have much success with Parsnips which most people think are easy and my beetroot isn't anything to write home about either:noidea:. Think MPC stands for multi purpose compost Susieshoe
     
  9. Susieshoe

    Susieshoe Gardener

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    Ah of course!

    Funnily enough - I've just lifted some leeks to eat tonight and have discovered some spring onions in amongst them!!! Certainly didn't deliberately plant them and have no idea how they got there - can only assume some seed tipped in the plot accidentally............ They're actually not bad.......!
     
  10. "M"

    "M" Total Gardener

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    I planted them the very first year I had a raised bed ... they never got pulled and grew huge! I then "transplanted" them to another area of the garden and they still thrived (albeit via n.e.g.l.e.c.t ) for that year. They didn't make it longer than that though. Oh and I planted in soil not MPC :dunno:
     
  11. "M"

    "M" Total Gardener

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    Oops, I was mistaken, it was actually 2 yrs ago :redface:

    Here they are outgrowing the raised bed. We then cleared that area behind those low, brown fence panels (ex compost heap) and put them there.

    CIMG0251 (640x479).jpg
     
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    • lykewakewalker

      lykewakewalker Apprentice Gardener

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      Fret not, I have been trying to grow Spring onions for over 40 years now and I have never even managed to get a single seed to germinate.[/quote]

      Don't worry FC, I haven't been trying for 40 years but it feels like that. Spring Onions are my nemesis, I have tried every way suggested on this thread and more. I have sown in Autumn, in Spring, in pots, in the ground, in the greenhouse, I think that anyone who says they have grown them probably bought them at Sainsbury's....... Spring Onions, I hate them.
       
    • Phil A

      Phil A Guest

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      I sow them direct into rows and then thin out :psnp:
       
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      • Jiffy

        Jiffy The Match is on Fire

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        I sow direct in the soil and always had some to eat, but they do take a long time to come through
         
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        • Fat Controller

          Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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          Ah, so it looks like I could have a container that is all but a waste - reckon I will quit on them now, and give the container over to radishes or lettuce then (not ditching the best part of 100l of good compost).

          How odd that something that is so simple for some work out so hard for others - this gardening lark is a continual mind bender at times.
           
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