Do You Know My Onions?

[Sanjo]

Morning to all grapes. Going to sound a daft question but I started my onion sets off in the greenhouse as advised by my daughters neighbour. They grew quickly and sprightly but when it came to putting them in I had broken my wrist and have had a metal plate put in and I am seeing the surgeon tomorrow to see how successful it has been. . I did them one handed a few weeks ago but despite the fact that the tops looked healthy the bulbs seemed soft. They look good in my plot, very green but I have probably put them in too deep. Do they get firmer as they get bigger or shall I just accept that they've had it. If they are not going to be any good I could really do with the space for something else. I have a long garden but most of it is paths, grass and fruit trees. I am catch cropping at the base of the runner beans and have spuds in sacks in between the shrubs. All done one handed! Talking of spuds I am only growing earlies but we want spuds for Christmas. Years and years ago we grew some in sacks and had them Christmas day so it was a success but we cant remember whether we used early spuds in which case I shall save some from whats in the garden. Sorry about the length of questions. Been weeding this morning and wanted an excuse to sit down !! Many thanks.

[Flummery]

Well done for doing ANYTHING one handed! Your soft onions will only be the onion sets. As they grow you should get good onions even if they have been left a bit long before putting in. I'd leave them and give them a chance.
As to earlies at Christmas - you can buy seed potatoes that have been kept chilled for later planting - Carlingford and (if memory serves,) Charlotte are the usual ones. But there's nothing to stop you stowing a few of your own crop in the salad drawer of the fridge - make sure everyone knows so they don't cook your seed spuds! You can put them in around about August.

[Sanjo]

That was quick Flummery, thanks for that. I would not have thought of putting them in the fridge on the basis that they go black. Not going to matter much for a seed potatoe though is it. I'll give it a go. I did notice that my local Wyevales still had spuds in there last week although I expect all the earlies have gone by now. By the look of it you could fill a bag and probably mix them. I suppose if I took a magic marker with me I could write on the spud as I put it in the bag and then get a mixture!!!! On second thoughts maybe not, OH finds me embarrassing enough sometimes as it is as the older I get the more likely I am to speak my mind (especially about poor service). Thanks again Flummery.

[Flummery]

Well done you - we shouldn't have to put up with poor service.

[zazen999]

Sanjo.

I would also take a marker pen, write on the potato and mix them - if I wanted to!

Never worry about what people think of me...life's too short!