Allotments 4 All

Can anyone give me some tips on how to do this. What time of the year should I sow them ?
Any advice would be welcomed.
Duke :)

Which alliums do you want to grow?

At this time of year ... my walking onions (seed from Finland) have just germinated, as have my "Sonic" red onions ... both sourced from that well-known auction site. I've read that the "Florence"-type red onions are winter hardy (though it didn't mention that in the catalogue), so I've started some of those, and I've got some seed left from an "Electric" red onion that flowered last year. I've just this weekend harvested my "Electric" onions, from the same batch of seed, that were sown last year, albeit a little later, (the originals were a packet of sets that were planted the previous October). The few Walking Onions I sowed at the end of August last year are now bunching (but not walking  ??? ) though they taste very nice ... next year I'll have a lot more  ;D Oh, and I nearly forgot, I've got a batch of Welsh onions (red, blue and white) just starting and I'll be getting some over-wintering spring onions (scallions) ... probably White Lisbon ... sown in the next week or two.

Japanese overwintering types about now, from the posting above I'll stick some lonmg red florence in too. Tree onions and wlesh onions can be sown almost any time, but I'#d suggest with the maincrops. Garlic and elephant garlic the offsets go in now, cloves for overwintering types go in end of September/erly october. Maincrop shallots go in in October though January, depending on conditions. Giant onios get sown under lights and in serious greenhouses in September/october if you have the kit, if you're just growing them for "big" then start them in Decemberunder cover. Maincrops want to get sown under cover anytime between December adn march.Spring onions in succession from March to July, then the overwintering ones in september/october. Leeks in March/April......

chrisc

Well I have some seeds from some of those globe type flowering alliums. Is it worth doing or is it best to buy some bulbs.

Duke

our long red florence are about 3" tall at the moment, also the ishikura onions are the same , ishikura will go inside but the long red did very well overwinter this year  ;D

Quote from: Duke Ellington on August 10, 2010, 14:07:38
Well I have some seeds from some of those globe type flowering alliums. Is it worth doing or is it best to buy some bulbs.

Duke

sorry, the only alliums I grow are to eat. Have you tried in non-edibles?

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,35449.0.html
This is about growing Galtonia from seed but the practice is the same for any bulb. The time scale may vary with the size of the bulb.

Plant some as soon as they're ripe, and keep some back for the following spring. See what happens.

Most , if not all the big ornamental Onions need a period of cold to initiate germination. They do better sown fresh and often stored seed will not germinate at all.