Onion from seed

orchidpepper

Hi Guys,

This year I tried growing onions from seed and so far.... not a success

I started all of them in the greenhouse and moved half of them out about 2 weeks before the rest. ALL of them are puny!!! (biggest is about the size of a chippy pickle)

The ones I kept in the greenhouse are the biggest but still......

Anyone else dabbled with seed?

I've planted loads this year but most has dissappointed. Only the tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes make me proud... where am i going wrong :-(

gx

evie451

You are doing well, i used onion sets last year and got nothing bigger than a chippie pickle! I used a set of baby onions because i read it was quite hard to do them from seed so well done you...Last year i used mine around roasts and in casseroles like shallots......

jollyanna

I bought sets from Thompon and morgan and they are really disapointing so far. I read someone on here say it is a bad year for onions, don't know why. Next year I'll get the cheapest I can from Wilkos and I bet they'll be wonderful.

katholicos

My onions have been well poor as well :-(

The ones i sowed from seed all failed to germinate so i went with sets, which grew very poorly.

EmptyPockets

Everyone I know, including ourselves, have said that onions are poor this year. Ours just seem to have stopped altogether and my Dad was saying the same about his lastnight. This is the first time we've done onions from sets, but well done on what you've achieved from seed! We've just lifted half of ours and will leave the rest for now to see what they do.

Ah well, if at first you don't succeed...

Zazen999

Depends on when you sowed them and also the weather, the soil, the rainfall....the weeds etc etc.

It is only July; onions sowed in December from seed will be ready to harvest in September. Onions sown last summer/autumn would have been harvested already.

Make sure that you loosen the soil around them, and make sure they don't dry out [so you would have needed to have watered them during the recent hot weather]....with all this rain they should start to bulk out a bit.

frazzbo

jollyanna wrote: »

I bought sets from Thompon and morgan and they are really disapointing so far. I read someone on here say it is a bad year for onions, don't know why. Next year I'll get the cheapest I can from Wilkos and I bet they'll be wonderful.

We had the wilkos ones (onion sets) this year and they haven't been successful, but it sounds like maybe it's just a bad year for growing onions!

spadoosh

mine are about the size of small shallots, not doing well! gutted Pulled spuds though last night, very tasty!

VinceNoir

I sowed seeds in about august last year, they germinated quite quickly and were ready for picking as spring onions in, well spring.

Picked them as and when I needed them as spring onions (lovely in stir fries) and the 8 or so that are remaining are a really good size. one is huge, one of them is starting to flower. Should probably pick them, but I've got a bag of onions that need using up.

WestonDave

My Wilkos red onions are doing fine. I read somewhere that they need a lot of water in the early stages which may have counted against them in the long dry spell if they haven't been watered. I mix mine in with other plants so they tend to get watered. I've also had to keep picking the flower heads off them! For the time being they can stay put until the shoots start to fall over at which point I'll fish them out - at the moment they are acting as carrot fly deterrent!

orchidpepper

Thanks everyone, I feel so much better knowing i'm not alone!!!

In answer to one of the questions, I sowed my onion seed in January and checked em every day (slightly obsessively, I was desperate to get started)

I think maybe my soil is partly to blame so after everything has been lifted I am going to smother it in manure from the farm, that should sort it!