Onion Spacing

[Alison]

i only hand weed my onions, i dont trust myself with a hoe

I don't get on with hoeing at all, just don't find that it really works that well and find that hand weeding although taking longer, lasts much longer and is far less likely to damage the plants you want.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Advice i was given for Onions. Was plant 4'' apart, with 9'' between rows??? Is there a set distance?? for sets.

paul.

Paul,

I grow my sets about 4" -5" apart and 18" between rows but then I have plenty of room. That allows me to be quite cavalier with my hoe without damaging my onions and I also have plenty of room to rake away the weeds to place in my compost heap. I also have an onion hoe which has a blade no more than 3" wide which saves an awful lot of bending whilst weeding although I do finish off by hand.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I dont grow for size just to eat and so keep them fairly close.

Colin

[sbeneli]

You could try a torpedo-shaped onion to grow between them, like Rouge Long de Florence, if you're concerned they'll be too crowded.

[pauco]

Paul,

I grow my sets about 4" -5" apart and 18" between rows but then I have plenty of room. That allows me to be quite cavalier with my hoe without damaging my onions and I also have plenty of room to rake away the weeds to place in my compost heap. I also have an onion hoe which has a blade no more than 3" wide which saves an awful lot of bending whilst weeding although I do finish off by hand.

Thanks for that Aberdeenplotter, room ain't to bad so will give it a go. You dont try, you will never know

paul.

[Lazgaot]

I'd be so bold as to say 3-4" between sets in all directions will give you a decent crop of medium sized bulbs. I did this last year as an experiment and was pleasantly surprised. The year before I was more generous and had fewer much larger bulbs,3-400gms each.

The smaller ones dried out quicker and stored better too. I'm doing a 3 whole beds like it t
this year.

[Chef_uk]

I went by the book for my overwintering onions so should hopefully get a decent size for them but will be planting the summer ones as close as possible.