Topic: planting onions

[stocko75]

would it be ok to plant my onion sets  and garlic out tom?  weather  is forecast a bit warmer but obviously we will be getting more frost  and cold days etc,,, advice appreciated,thanks all

[chriscross1966]

I'd not plant the onions out until you have a few days without frost forecast. Keep them cool and  ventilated until then. THe garlic actually needs the cold so I'd try and get that in ASAP if you can.


[/my 2p]

chrisc

[stocko75]

i thought that too re garlic,but on the pack it says plant  feb march,also have gw planner and it says the same??? ???

[manicscousers]

I've just planted half my shallots, going to leave the rest plus the onions a bit longer  :)

[stocko75]

oops you just reminded me manics,i've got some shallots to plant too!!! never grown them before!

[Chrispy]

i thought that too re garlic,but on the pack it says plant  feb march,also have gw planner and it says the same??? ???

Some variates of garlic do not need the cold spell, the first I grew was such a variety which I planted out in March.

[cornykev]

Mine will go in when the ground is workable, last year they went in the back end of Feb.      ;D ;D ;D

[Flighty]

Onion sets don't like being planted in cold, wet ground so wait as they can be planted anytime up to late April! I usually plant mine around mid March.

[antipodes]

I only just bought my onions and it has been so cold here still, there is no hope of digging anyway! I usually plant mine from end-Feb till mid-March. I start with shallots and finish with red onions. Last year that worked pretty well. Garlic however went in in Jan but no shoots yet! it's been that cold though, I just hope they will appear one of these days!

[saddad]

I plant my onion sets in cells and then plant out at the end of March  :)

[cornykev]

My ground is very wet so I covered some ready for the shallots and will probably start some off in pots, but my onions will have to wait a while.    ;D ;D ;D

[1066]

I plant my onion sets in cells and then plant out at the end of March  :)

I was going to ask about this as I read about it in GW mag. Would you recommend this for shallots? And what are the advantages / disadvantages? They didn't bother to explain that bit in GW!!

Thanks

[saddad]

Shallots are as tough as old boots and don't need it. Onions just get a longer season if you start them off...  :)
If you don't get them root bound they can give bigger bulbs.

[1066]

Aaahhhhh

Thanks for the info Saddad  :)

[kippers garden]

My allotment is soaking wet and anything i plant now would just rot!...so i have just made up 122 newspaper pots and planted my shallots in them and they are sitting in my open mini greenhouse.  I have also just planted loads of broad beans in toilet rolls and they are outside until my lottie drys out (my overwintering broad beans have badly been affected by the cold weather and i'm going to pull them out)

[Philbasford]

I heard from someone on my allotment that onions were not affected by the frost?,wot with them being a bulb etc., i planted mine last weekend, the part of the allotment they are is the drier end, so hope they are ok, ive put fleece on top of them!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've never had spring-planted onions rot. The problem I have is with the autumn-planted version. My plot is liable to waterlogging and they rot in a wet winter. Neither version seems to mind normal cold, though there are a lot of gaps in my autumn-planted onions, and they could well be down to cold rather than wet this year.

[artichoke]

Broad beans: they can look miserable at this time after a hard winter, but I am leaving mine in for a bit longer in case their big root systems throw up fresh shoots and get away well. They have always done this so far, but admittedly this is said to have been the coldest winter for 30 years.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's another thing that I find suffers more from wet than cold. The mice had mine this year.

[Anisemary]

My allotment is soaking wet and anything i plant now would just rot!...so i have just made up 122 newspaper pots and planted my shallots in them and they are sitting in my open mini greenhouse.  I have also just planted loads of broad beans in toilet rolls and they are outside until my lottie drys out (my overwintering broad beans have badly been affected by the cold weather and i'm going to pull them out)

I have used toilet roll inners many times for sweet peas and runner beans, but have never tried making newspaper tubes, do thery actually hold up until planting out time?Can they be made without buying a special 'former' that many garden sundries people seem to sell now?