miscalculated with my onions

[janeyo]

I ordered some sets from T&M along with my potatoes. Then forgot I'd ordered onions. So bought some sets in Wilkos.

I now have 750 grams of sturon, 500 grams of shallots, 250 grams of snowball onions.

Plus 2 more packs of garlic to go in as thought mine were dead then they appeared.

The bed is only 11 feet by 5 feet. Bit worried they won't all fit now.
Woulnd't be quite so bad if I'd not doubled up on the sturon and got another type to go with them instead .Maybe wilkos will exchange?

[lynda66]

think wikies are quite good at exchanging, can you not save some of them for planting later in the year? my onion seeds were planted last august, and still aren't ready yet after overwintering.

[BarleySugar]

The day length affects when onions start to bulb up. I think the ones we plant in the spring are long day onions, needing 14-16 hours of light, whereas the autumn or japanese ones are short day 12-14 hours of light, to start making the onion bulb.
That's why autumn sown ones are ready earlier that spring ones, but you still need to wait quite a while.
Planting onions sets later will give smaller bulbs, as they will have less time to grow more leaves and therefore layers before they start to mature.

[PAULW]

That's why autumn sown ones are ready earlier that spring ones, but you still need to wait quite a while.

I stand by to be corrected, but I thought the reason the overwintering onions were ready first is because when you plant them in the autumn they had time to put down roots and shoot before they went dormant, then when the ground starts to warm up they start growing again, whereas the spring planted onions still had to put down roots,
Overwintering onions hit the ground running

Spring planted onions are still in the changing room looking through their kit bag

[BarleySugar]

Maybe I got it wrong. I haven't space to grow both, but I was reading up on japanese onions which are autumn planted, and an article said they needed less day length to bulb up than spring varieties, so they would be ready earlier, but they didn't keep as well.
Yes, they do grow before it gets cold, but there isn't enough light to start them bulbing. Then when they do, they've more growth so they get to a decent size. If they were planted in spring in this country they would only have time to make smaller onions.
Long-day and Short-day Onions - Fast Facts - Weekend Gardener This is an American site I think, but it was interesting all the same.

[di]

Last year we had quite a few sets left & no room to plant them "properly",so I just made a couple of rows planting them really close together & used the resulting smaller onions for pickling.Plan on doing the same this year.

[janeyo]

Well I took some back to wilkos, with the itention of swapping them for somethign nongardening.. OOPS! Came away with a few red onion sets, some herb pot things and 2 redcurrant bushes (pound each).

They were fine about the swap even with no receipt.

I love wilkos.