On Jul 19, 1:48 am, "John Vanini" wrote:
Every year I have bought onion sets and have had a reasonable success rate
but I am considering, for the coming year, growing from seed. Has anyone any
experience of this and can advise me of the advantages and the
disadvantages.- and, perhaps, suggest any particular variety? I have looke4d
at the on-line catalogues but can't really make up my mind which to go for.

My reasons or wanting to change this year is that, the sets always get too
many small onions that never seem to do very well and, though they grow,
they remain fairly small. Also, I have no idea what type of onion they are
(this is because I buy them from my allotment shop and they don't seem
certain as to the type they've bought!!!)

As regards the position of my garden (which may well make a difference as to
what varieties I can grow) I live in Sussex, not far from the coast.

Regards,

John

My experience, fwitw:
1) onion seeds deactivate faster than other seeds, so try and get this
year's seeds for sure if you go that route, and don't count too
heavily on saving any extra for next year. I keep mine sealed in a
dried environment in the fridge, and after two years they're like all
dead, whereas other seeds seem to last almost forever.
2) onions come in 2 general varieties, long day and short day,
optimized for northern and southern (US anyway) climates as to when
they mature, respectively. If you plant short day onions in the north,
they will start to mature too early in the season when the days hit
like 12 hours before they had a chance to really grow, because the
growing season started later than down south. On the other hand, if
you plant long day onions in the south, they will not really ever
fully mature, as they keep waiting for those 16 hour days to tell them
it's June 22 and it's time to start making a bulb. There are also
intermediate day varieties.

Surprisingly few places know this, or know what kind they are selling.
For instance, Wethersfield is a long day onion, which I can only
remember because it was developed in Wethersfield, CT, i.e. the north.
Anyway, that might be part of your problem, wrong variety for your
location.