Topic: Planting out onion transplants in bunches

[Jeannine]

 Somewhere in my memory I seem to think I read about this, could someone educate me please. I have some in modules, looking like grass right now and thought I may give it a try as I have some bigger ones ready to go out too.So a good comparison growing them side by side.

XX Jeannine

[galina]

Somewhere in my memory I seem to think I read about this, could someone educate me please. I have some in modules, looking like grass right now and thought I may give it a try as I have some bigger ones ready to go out too.So a good comparison growing them side by side.

XX Jeannine

I would not plant more than 3 because 3 can push each other apart and you get sizeable onions.  You can certainly do this with beetroot with the same explanation.  But no more because onions are very susceptible to being growth checked by weed competition and, by extension, by crowding with other onions.  Presumably you don't want more mature grassy spring onions but proper onions of at least shallot size. 

When I have anything that is a bit tricky to tease apart (looking at my tps that need moving out of their communal pots at the moment) I put the whole lot into lukewarm water and when it is fully wet, the roots come apart easily. 

[Deb P]

I grow the red florence onions in modules with out 10 seeds per 3cm module. They then get planted out like this, and I harvest some at spring onion size and leave the others to grow on to large shallot size. I'm hardening my first batch off now!

[BarriedaleNick]

This does work much better with something like red florence but not so well with flat bottomed onions like Cipollini.  I have done this in the past, with advice from people here, with great results - just plant the whole module out with 3 or seedlings  - maybe increase spading a little.

[Duke Ellington]

It works brilliantly with spring onions. You can pull early as spring onions and then let them grow and use them as shallots. Then even later on and use them as small onions.😊

[Jeannine]

The ones I have are Walla Walla and there is more than three to a module right now. The bigger plants are easy to handle so  I was going to chuck the little ones as they are small and fiddly . I guess I could plant them and then use them as spring onions. I have never put them out this small before though but I don't want to grow them on anymore . I think they are too small to go out but they look like they need to come out of the module.