Topic: Late onions

[Baaaaaaaa]

My local garden centre are selling off their onions cheap.

Am I  too late to plant them, or is it a waste of money ?

[GodfreyRob]

Most onions are sensitive to daylight - after 22nd June (longest day) they start forming bulbs - so the bigger the plant is before then, generally speaking, the bigger the bulb.
So you will get bulbs from onion sets planted now - just don't expect big ones.

Some people just plant them close together and pick them as spring onions. Might be a good thing to do if they are really cheap.

[skyblu]

I couldn't resist that bargain so bought 2 packets as the planting guide says that they can be planted in the autumn too...but now I get home and check, it would appear that they can't - not in the UK anyway.  They are Sturon, so if anyone knows any different and think I can overwinter these then I'd be delighted to hear  :)

Failing that I will be growing 400 instead of 200 onions this summer....

[Barnowl]

I haven't ever heard of Sturon being used for Autumn/Winter planting and in any case think it would pretty tricky to keep the sets in good condition until September/October.

Sturon doesn't mind close planting - you just get smaller onions.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Last year I planted some spare sets and used them as spring onions. It worked fine.

[growmore]

Onion sets planted out now should be fine, I find you get less chance of them bolting if they are set later. I don't set my red sets out till mid May. and usually have a good crop, with few if any bolting. Rake in some blood fish and bone where you are putting them..