Are spring onions just ordinary onions picked early or a different type ?
Either way,how do I go about planting some , and when please ?

In article RLBl9.348$aK.82141@newsfep2-gui, miklol
writes
Are spring onions just ordinary onions picked early or a different type ?
Either way,how do I go about planting some , andwhen please ?

Two meanings here.

'Spring' onions are normally mean small salad onions grown at any time
of the year from 'White Lisbon' or similar seed. Their green tops are
very tasty and useable at the earlier stages of development, and their
bulbs are very good though small keepers. We always keep a tray or two
of those on the go.

Spring cropping onions can be grown from Japanese or other autumn sown
sets developed especially for that purpose. They do come a little
earlier than sets sown in Feb./March under cover, but we concluded that
the ten or so days advantage was not worth the hassle of taking them all
through the winter. Maybe an advantage to commercial growers wishing to
catch a high price, but IOHO a 'no-no' in the kitchen garden.
--
Alan & Joan Gould, North Lincs.

Oh I'm sad to hear this as my little winter sets have just arrived -
trying
them for the first time. Are they difficult to get through the winter
then?
Do they need special care, cloches, fleece etc? I'd kinda hoped they'd be
like the spring planting ones - bung 'em in and wait.

--A

Bung 'em in and wait. That's all I did last year. I put them in a little
deeper than normal - with the tip just showing above ground level. Only
"special care" was to throw a net over them initially to stop the birds
pulling them up. The net was removed after the green shoots appeared and
started to poke through the net. Well worth growing :-)

Drakanthus.

Spring cropping onions can be grown from Japanese or other autumn sown
sets developed especially for that purpose. They do come a little
earlier than sets sown in Feb./March under cover, but we concluded that
the ten or so days advantage was not worth the hassle of taking them all
through the winter. Maybe an advantage to commercial growers wishing to
catch a high price, but IOHO a 'no-no' in the kitchen garden.
--
Alan & Joan Gould, North Lincs.

I've just planted some Japanese onion sets (Senshyu Yellow). We tried
growing Japanese onions for the first time last Winter and thought they were
a great success. We started cropping them before they were fully ripe and
they fulfilled our cooking needs for several weeks until the traditional
Spring planted onion crop was ready. They were tasty too. Well worth growing
in my opinion (or should that be "in my oponion" :-)

Drakanthus.

In article , Alison alison.freeth@No
SpAm.wideopenwindows.fsbusiness.co.uk writes

Oh I'm sad to hear this as my little winter sets have just arrived - trying
them for the first time. Are they difficult to get through the winter then?
Do they need special care, cloches, fleece etc? I'd kinda hoped they'd be
like the spring planting ones - bung 'em in and wait.

They will grow and crop successfully, but we didn't think that they were
sufficiently early to warrant the extra care and attention needed to
ensure a good crop in relation to early spring sown sets. Others may
think differently, but that's what gardening is all about.
--
Alan & Joan Gould, North Lincs.

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
news
In article RLBl9.348$aK.82141@newsfep2-gui, miklol
writes
Are spring onions just ordinary onions picked early or a different type ?
Either way,how do I go about planting some , andwhen please ?

Two meanings here.

'Spring' onions are normally mean small salad onions grown at any time
of the year from 'White Lisbon' or similar seed. Their green tops are
very tasty and useable at the earlier stages of development, and their
bulbs are very good though small keepers. We always keep a tray or two
of those on the go.

Do you mean that you make successive sowings throughout the year? And what
does 'tray or two' mean?

Mary

"Drakanthus" wrote in message
...
Oh I'm sad to hear this as my little winter sets have just arrived -
trying
them for the first time. Are they difficult to get through the winter
then?
Do they need special care, cloches, fleece etc? I'd kinda hoped they'd
be
like the spring planting ones - bung 'em in and wait.

--A

Bung 'em in and wait. That's all I did last year. I put them in a little
deeper than normal - with the tip just showing above ground level. Only
"special care" was to throw a net over them initially to stop the birds
pulling them up. The net was removed after the green shoots appeared and
started to poke through the net. Well worth growing :-)

I don't know what I'm doing either. Last week I planted some Electric sets
and covred them with fleece, well pegged down.

Not to protect them against garden birds but to stop them being scratched up
by our hens! So far so good.

Mary

Drakanthus.

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
news
In article RLBl9.348$aK.82141@newsfep2-gui, miklol
writes
Are spring onions just ordinary onions picked early or a different type ?
Either way,how do I go about planting some , andwhen please ?

Spring cropping onions can be grown from Japanese or other autumn sown
sets developed especially for that purpose. They do come a little
earlier than sets sown in Feb./March under cover, but we concluded that
the ten or so days advantage was not worth the hassle of taking them all
through the winter. Maybe an advantage to commercial growers wishing to
catch a high price, but IOHO a 'no-no' in the kitchen garden.
--
Alan & Joan Gould, North Lincs.

Oh I'm sad to hear this as my little winter sets have just arrived - trying
them for the first time. Are they difficult to get through the winter then?
Do they need special care, cloches, fleece etc? I'd kinda hoped they'd be
like the spring planting ones - bung 'em in and wait.

--A

In article , Mary Fisher
writes

#

Do you mean that you make successive sowings throughout the year? And what
does 'tray or two' mean?

T be more correct, we use half seed trays for that. I sow three rows of
White Lisbon seed very thinly in potting grade compost. That results in
three rows of about 20 onions. When one tray is about half used up, I
sow the next. It can be done that way any time of the year, but the
growing time varies according to the season. It means we always have
fresh salad onions ready to use in a convenient place.
--
Alan & Joan Gould, North Lincs.