The Essential Allotment Guide by John Harrison

Author:John Harrison [John Harrison]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

Onions

Fig. 37. Onion – with onion sets on the left.

For the beginner, the easiest way to grow onions is from sets (which are immature bulbs whose growth has been stopped) planted directly into the ground. The sets have a head start on seed sown onions so they get off quickly, are more disease resistant, avoid the onion fly, crop better in poorer soils and will usually provide a crop even if they go in a little later than they should.

Plant sets in March and April fat-end down so that the tip is just above soil level. Plant them 6 inches (15cm) apart each way or spaced at 4 inches (10cm) in rows 8–12 inches (20–30cm) apart. If you plant them closer, you’ll produce smaller bulbs. However, unless you are trying to grow huge onions, there’s no point spacing more than 6 inches (15cm) apart. As large sets are more prone to bolting do not discard small sets in the pack in favour of them.

Scrape a small hole or a drill to plant in, put the set in, then backfill the soil. Never simply push the set into the soil, especially a heavier soil, as this can damage the root plate and kill the set. Also don’t plant too deeply or the crop will probably develop a thick neck and not store well. Ideally the soil should come about a third to half way up the set when planted.

Birds like to pull sets out of the soil so it’s advisable to use netting or even cloching until the sets are established.

Because of postage costs, sets are quite expensive when bought by mail order so your choice will depend more on what is available in your allotment shop or garden centre. Bolting, where the onion shoots up a flower head which reduces bulb size and spoils it for keeping, is more common in sets than seed sown onions. To overcome this you can pay a little more for heat treated sets that do not bolt as often.

For an early crop you can plant Japanese onion sets in mid-September to early November to provide a crop for June (a good month), or you can sow before the spring-planted crop arrives. Unfortunately, these don’t keep too well but they’ll see you through until the spring-planted crop arrives at the end of summer. You can grow autumn onions from seed but I’d stick to sets for these.

Once planted, just keep the weeds down and water in dry weather. Do be careful weeding, I lose more onions to my own hoe than the birds. Once the onions have swollen to harvest size, stop watering. They don’t need a lot at this stage and too much water will encourage rot and reduce their keeping quality.

You can pull at any point for using straightaway but, if you want to store onions, wait until the foliage is starting to bend over of its own accord. Old books talk about bending the foliage over – do not do this because it damages the neck causing problems in storage.

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