--
Thanks Keith,England,UK.

When is it safe to start planting onion sets,they are starting to sprout in
the bag and going soft?
From spring onwards,it says on the bag but is it too early?
I live in Nottingham ,East Midlands.

--
Thanks Keith,England,UK.
"keith ;-)" wrote in message
...


--
Thanks Keith,England,UK.

"keith ;-)" wrote in message
...
When is it safe to start planting onion sets,they are starting to sprout
in
the bag and going soft?
From spring onwards,it says on the bag but is it too early?
I live in Nottingham ,East Midlands.

No, get 'em in. AFAIK you can put them in just after Xmas! Mine are in....

Andy.

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 20:55:36 -0000, "andrewpreece"
wrote:


"keith ;-)" wrote in message
...
When is it safe to start planting onion sets,they are starting to sprout
in
the bag and going soft?
From spring onwards,it says on the bag but is it too early?
I live in Nottingham ,East Midlands.

No, get 'em in. AFAIK you can put them in just after Xmas! Mine are in....

Andy.

I ordered some red baron onion sets from organiccatalogue.com which
say they are not expected until 11 April. These are heat treated but
even so is that going to be too late to plant?

JB

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:57:13 +0000, JB
wrote:

~On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 20:55:36 -0000, "andrewpreece"
wrote:
~
~
~"keith ;-)" wrote in message
...
~ When is it safe to start planting onion sets,they are starting to sprout
~in
~ the bag and going soft?
~ From spring onwards,it says on the bag but is it too early?
~ I live in Nottingham ,East Midlands.
~
~No, get 'em in. AFAIK you can put them in just after Xmas! Mine are in....
~
~Andy.
~
~I ordered some red baron onion sets from organiccatalogue.com which
~say they are not expected until 11 April. These are heat treated but
~even so is that going to be too late to plant?

Don't go there. I rang Marshall's the other day asking where on earth
my heat treated New Fen Globes were. They said they'd had a problem
with the treatment and they wouldn't be dispatching them until after
Easter - and I have Easter week off to do allotment planting! Argh!

To get the best crop you have to get as much leaf on them as possible
before midsummer, as each leaf has a corresponding layer in the bulb.
When the bulbs start to fatten up in late June, the more layers the
bulb has, the fatter it gets.

So the later these perishing onions arrive, the worse the crop. I
moaned at them! (And went and bought some Turbo sets from the local GC
so I actually have *some* onions!)

When the HT ones arrive, I shall plant in large modules and keep them
under glass until they have a lot of leaf, hoping they grow faster in
the warm.

Having said that, I just found a tray of small New Fen Globes from
last year's relatively poor harvest that I'd forgotten about. Most are
perfectly sound, and are now being eaten. So they definitely store
well!


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 12:06:33 +0000, JB
wrote:

~On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:42:35 +0000 (UTC),
(jane) wrote:
~
~On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:57:13 +0000, JB
~wrote:
~
~~I ordered some red baron onion sets from organiccatalogue.com which
~~say they are not expected until 11 April. These are heat treated but
~~even so is that going to be too late to plant?
~
snip
~So the later these perishing onions arrive, the worse the crop. I
~moaned at them! (And went and bought some Turbo sets from the local GC
~so I actually have *some* onions!)
~
~When the HT ones arrive, I shall plant in large modules and keep them
~under glass until they have a lot of leaf, hoping they grow faster in
~the warm.
~
~Having said that, I just found a tray of small New Fen Globes from
~last year's relatively poor harvest that I'd forgotten about. Most are
~perfectly sound, and are now being eaten. So they definitely store
~well!
~
~For everything else I've tried they have seemed OK and being a novice
~gardener I had assumed that they would dispatch them at the 'right'
~time which is what they explicitly state for some items. Having said
~that I noticed my local GC had onion sets in and were selling out so
~I've planted some non organic red baron so that I should get
~something.

The worst that can happen is they bolt! My first year of growing
anything I started in May, planting two bags of sets within the first
2 weeks. I did quite well, considering! The onions lasted into the
autumn.

~If I try bringing them on in modules will they transplant successully?
~I thought they among the crops that don't like root disturbance.

That's why I use the larger modules (about 24 to a seed tray) - you
just plant the whole lot out when the roots start coming out of the
holes. The problem with allium roots is they snap easily, and don't
tend to grow replacements in a given season. Remove the feeding
mechanism and you don't get as large a crop.

Having said that, leek growers often, at transplanting time, trim the
roots to an inch long and cut back the leaves too, before dropping the
seedling into a 6" deep hole and puddling in.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!