When is the best time to plant onions and garlic in Autumn?

[lin]

I have not seen any winter onions in the shop yet but I bought some winter garlic at Tatton, but all it says in instructions is "plant in Autumn" which could mean anything from now (it's pretty cold here in Manchester) till November.

Any ideas? Don't want to plant too early and find it shooting in the next month or so if we get warm weather, but equally not sure whether you should wait till November.....?
Linda

[lin]

[katynewbie]

 :-\

I asked about garlic in an earlier thread (re Solent Wight Garlic) and the answer seems to be October-ish.

Will be doing onions around the same time as soon as they are in the shops. I am in Oldham, so not far from you, none of the old guys on our site are doing either garlic or onions yet. Have a look at other plots on your site to check?!

;)

[saddad]

I would hope to get the o/w onions in before the end of sept here in sunny(?) Derby...
???

[lin]

Thanks Katy I did a search for garlic but didn't see your thread, but will wait till October... mind you I checked the garlic... it is in my garage and it seems to be going a little soft, would hate it to rot before October! Mine is Solent Wight too.

My garage is a little damp, perhaps I should put it in a plastic container or something... hope we get some sun before winter!!
Linda

[triffid]

My HDRA crop calendar says to plant onions from autumn sets from the start of September till the end of November, so that gives a good wide window for regional weather variations!

[Two Choices]

I think the correct way is to plant garlic by the shortest day of the year so it is exposed to a reasonable period of low temperature.  I've done it this way and also started it off in 3 inch pots in the greenhouse and then planted out in March / April. Both have given good results.

[redimp]

I got my o/w onions in late (late October) and only had two that bolted.  Others who got there's in Sept/early October had loads that bolted so I am sticking with late.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Don't plant them any later than October, as they need to be well established before the cold weather. My October ones were good this year, while the spring-planted ones went to seed.

[weedbusta]

robert, (or anybody else)

can you sow from the ones that have gone to seed, or is it best to start again from cloves?

[Robert_Brenchley]

No idea. I save cloves from the best garlic, and buy onions annually. I've never tried growing them from ones that went to seed, as it's not a trait I want to encourage!

[Hector]

I am wondering if I should put in my grlic now and the little modules of walla walla onions I have. It's warm now and I wondered if best to give them a start or wait until after the snow we are allegedly getting in October...what do you think folks. I'm in Wales :)

[cornykev]

My Shallots are all in and some of my onions, the rest will go in in a couple of weeks.   ;D

[Hector]

I think Ill go for it. I can always fleece them if it looks like snow :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

You don't need to  fleece garlic, it's extremely hardy.

[Hector]

Thank you. Jiggered. Just finished planting :)

[strawberry1]

last two plantings, my onion sets went dancing in the night and were all over the place by morning. It happened over and over so this year I have had some taylors radar sets and have put them in root trainers. Thay are sprouting and interestingly I can see which sets were rubbish. So far I haven`t even had 50% sprout so may end up buying more but good quality sets. My own gut feel is that they have taken off far too early and too quickly so I may just start again in october. The heat is not good

[pansy potter]

Our onions went in this week and garlic will follow. We always net all onions garlic and leeks to avoid losing them to the flying pests . Wish the netting would stop the rot and fungus etc

[manicscousers]

Just finished planting the last of the onions, I'll wait until the hot weather's over to plant the garlic  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I plant my sets and cover them with grass cuttings. They never move an inch.

[grawrc]

My onions are all in and I hope to plant the garlic and shallots by the end of October. Mind you this is Edinburgh and we had constant snow from November last year!!