This year I decided to grow spring onions from sets rather then sow seed with good results. I wondered if I were to plant some more sets now would I get a autumn crop?
Found a post on another gardening forum. Apparently you can plant sets in July and August for a autumn and winter crop. So I'm off to buy some sets on ebay. :)
??? :-\
I have never come across sets for spring onions.
I have used small onion sets in pots as spring onion replacements if needed, but always grown spring onions from seed, including winter hardy types
Quote from: cornykev on June 23, 2011, 05:21:55
??? :-\
I totally fail at germinating spring onion seed and it the same every year. Don't have the same problem with leek or ordinary onions seed.
http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=182
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1750
Quote from: tomatoada on June 23, 2011, 07:25:50
I have never come across sets for spring onions.
Just use the ordinary mild onion sets.
Have i got this right.
What you do is set your onions away as normal to produce normal globe onions. You also set away the same sets at intervals but just pull them early before they fill out which is , basically a large spring onion.
If this is correct then i think it would work as an onion depending on the weather is a sixty day crop. Although i dont see the point when you can plant Welsh Bunching Onion and have them vertualy all year round and never have to bother with spring onions.
Just plant the sets closer together then you would normally and use them as immature onions. Am now using onions planted 4/5 weeks ago for this purpose and they are Delicious much nicer than normal spring onions. As for Welsh bunching onions I have no experience of them...
One of the older blokes on our site uses all his shallots as spring onions :)
I use shallots as spring onions as do a lot more on our site taste delicious. pick them before they grow too big that way they are not too strong. ;D ;D
Is it not quite a pricey way to get spring onions? Mind you I'm sure they'll taste fabulous. I certainly grow Long Red Florence and use as spring onions, but from seed, which is considerably cheaper.
I think someone mentioned doing this last year when onion sets were down to 50p in Wilkies. I did it on daughters plot & they were lovely.
My shallot crop always has a few which are too small to eat but which if saved and planted next spring will make great spring onions.
Quote from: grawrc on June 23, 2011, 11:55:07
Is it not quite a pricey way to get spring onions? Mind you I'm sure they'll taste fabulous. I certainly grow Long Red Florence and use as spring onions, but from seed, which is considerably cheaper.
I've spent alot on spring onion seed in the past that have not germinated and I sure I'm not the only one ::)
Fair enough. No point doing it if it doesn't work for you. I think I must just have been lucky.
yes I don't know why spring onions don't germinate when normal onions seem to germinate really reliably.
If spring onions are such rubbish germinators, why don't we all give up and go back to growing normal onions from seed, and eating them young, which is surely where spring onions as a crop came from in the first place? (Thinnings?)
Good point about welsh onions davyw1
I never manage spring onions, hopeless. I usually get a few spring onions by leaving the very smallest onions in to over winter: they always come back up and every time I go down, I grab one or two, just enough for a salad or stirfry!
I used to have bit hit and miss results with spring onion seeds untill I started to cover the seed with grit rather than sieved compost. Ever since I've been having super germination.
I wonder if it is the weight of the grit that holds the moisture and weights the seeds against the compost.
I bought some bags of shallot and onion sets very cheaply just a few weeks ago and have planted some in containers as an experiment.
At 20p a bag for the onion sets, I can hardly go far wrong, can I?! ;D
What i did a lot of years ago with a packet of Red Barron onion seed was to plant them as spring onion then when they were ready as spring onion i left the first one to grow on and picked the next half dozen or so and left the next one and so on so i got my spring onions and the ones i left i let grow into onion bulbs so i got the best of both.
Now there is something for you to try.
I could never grow spring onions until I started to sow them in small modules, 8 or 9 in each section, then planted them out in bunches 6" apart. I am now harvesting bunches every two or three days, and still sowing in the modules for later. Apparently the variety I am growing ( Ishikura?) can be used like this, or even left to develop into small onions.
I don't have any problem with spring onions but they do take time to get to a good size, so I use shallot sets at the beginning of the season to get an early crop of spring onions.
Each set gives about bunch of spring onions so only use about 6 sets.
Also start my first lot of spring onions in modules in the greenhouse.
Bump for Cam. ;)
Quote from: Anisemary on June 24, 2011, 00:22:14
I could never grow spring onions until I started to sow them in small modules, 8 or 9 in each section, then planted them out in bunches 6" apart. I am now harvesting bunches every two or three days, and still sowing in the modules for later. Apparently the variety I am growing ( Ishikura?) can be used like this, or even left to develop into small onions.
Me too and I use a very sandy compost to sow them in. I grew some lovely furio and white Lisbon spring onions this year. The furio are now quote large so I use them as shallots. I will continue to sow my spring onions in modules.
Duke