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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Baaaaaaaa on May 05, 2009, 12:24:34
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My local garden centre are selling off their onions cheap.
Am I too late to plant them, or is it a waste of money ?
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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.
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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....
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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.
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Last year I planted some spare sets and used them as spring onions. It worked fine.
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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..