Block Onions

[andrewo]

The best onions I ever grew on my site were referred to be the old timers as block onions, you would buy them in plugs and plant them. As the onions grew they would push apart and this meant you could grow more in a small space. Does anyone know what this variety is?

[pigletwillie]

You can module sow any variety you wish , although I personally would go for the "smaller" varieties such as bedfordshire champion as these do very well sown 4-6 to a module and then planted out. As a further twist to the theme I also now sow about a quarter of my onion sets in groups of three rather than singly. It works very well, increasing yield in smaller areas.

[kernowyon]

I have a packet of bedfordshire champion, that was just going to sit in my seed box as i didn't know what to do with them next year, will give the module planting a go now. thanks for the info PW

[roitelet]

I module planted this year for the first time and the results were very good. It's the first time I grew onions from seed having had trouble with sets in previous years. The variety was Espangnol and I planted 1 seedling in each corner of 3in square pots. The resulting onions varied in size and on the whole were quite large enough for my use, not a lot of very small ones, and as PW says they take up less space. Next year I will grow the same variety and Rouge de Florence.

I am very impressed

[andrewo]

You can module sow any variety you wish , although I personally would go for the "smaller" varieties such as bedfordshire champion as these do very well sown 4-6 to a module and then planted out. As a further twist to the theme I also now sow about a quarter of my onion sets in groups of three rather than singly. It works very well, increasing yield in smaller areas.

Oooh, tell me more, where can I get the seed for bedfordshire and when do I start them off? I've only ever planted sets.

[pigletwillie]

Bedfordshire champion onion seed is available from most seed houses.

This year I sowed bedfordshire champ as I had the seed between Christmas and New year, 6 or so seeds to a module, 20 modules to a tray. These were planted out in late march and left to get on with it. They push each other out as they grow and you get a good variety of sizes, some ideal for a cheese sandwich others cricket ball size. If you pull the odd big one whilst green the others soon fill the space left.

This year as well I sowed sturon sets in three and they did well giving slightly smaller individual onions but a bigger overall yield in the area. These also were planted in March.