Help - I can't grow Spring Onions

[roadkill]

this may sound daft but how do you remove them from the trays as i didnt think they like to be moved

[womble]

I think people are starting them in modules, not trays.

[Eyren]

I use modules and ease the compost out with an dessert spoon (cheapo Tesco Value ones, originally bought for cat food until I switched them to a good-quality kibble!), then pop the whole thing into a pre-prepared hole in the ground. In warmer weather I just sow them directly in the raised bed.

[sclarke624]

I have a lot more success with (spring) White Lisbon Winter Hardy. The sowing dates on these are not much different from the just plain old (spring) White Lisbon.
i.e. (spring) White Lisbon Winter Hardy. sow March to september Harvest March to October.

(spring) White Lisbon. sow March to July harvest May to Oct.

HTH

Ps They were Mr fothergills which shows on the front of the packet wether winter hardy or not. I do have some T&M Winter hardy but it doesn't state winter hardy on the front although the sowing is Late winter through to summer harvest 6-8 weeks later (optomistic I think more like 12 weeks later).

[cupcake]

I sowed White Lisbon (Aldi, 35?p) in modules and put in the cold frame. They took about 3 weeks to germinate, and they are about ready to be popped in the ground.

[gojiberry]

I can get mine to germinate but then they just sit there for months with out doing anything. Even direct sowing is the same, just nothing except a spring onion doing an impression of a blade of grass.

Ian

[womble]

I can get mine to germinate but then they just sit there for months with out doing anything. Even direct sowing is the same, just nothing except a spring onion doing an impression of a blade of grass.

Ian

Well I was going to post almost exactly the same thing. I started some off in pots at the end of September last year! And even though they have been in the ground here for a few weeks they are still smaller than peoples who sowed them this year into modules. The ones I planted in modules this year are still like tiny blades of grass.

I don't get it and if I sow them in the ground you can forget it, most of them don't germinate and the only time I have ever got a decent SO is by sowing in spring and leaving it to over winter and be in the ground well over a year, then and only then does it get big enough.

I don't know what I am doing wring.

[zazen999]

I am a firm believer that it is all in the feeding of the soil...

My onion soil gets coffee grounds and epsom salts added when I am preparing it. It is also very clayey so I dig the top 6 inches off, pop that into a few buckets and sieve it back into the ground with the coffee grounds.

The onions are started off in modules, and they get weak seaweed or root veg feed whilst they are in those. I use the growing success organic fertiliser but you can use any phosphorus based fertiliser.

Once they are starting to thicken up [and they will if they get fed], plant out in the newly prepared bed. Scatter some epsom salts and the above mentioned fertiliser over them a few times in the growing season.

When they are about an inch in diameter...loosen the soil around the edges, this gives them the chance to grow outwards.

Don't feed with general fertiliser, they just grow greenery and no bottoms if you do that.

If there is a continued dry spell, water well. Stop watering once they are coming up to harvest.

I sowed some in September last year and popped them into a raised carrot bed which consisted of mainly sand, and had them as springs a few weeks back. They were half an inch diameter, and 2 bolted so I've left those to flower and will collect the seed later this year.

You don't very often get HUMUNGOUS onions from seed....but they are a decent enough size for cooking. I like transplanting them in bunches of 2 or 3 and they grow nicely together and push each other apart.

I also sow in staggered batches, never all at once.

[womble]

I am a firm believer that it is all in the feeding of the soil...

You might be right, something must be going wrong for me.
Saying that, the ones planted out are in a mixture of good garden compost and manure and they don't seem to be doing much.
I shall start feeding the moduled ones and come back to you for the next step if it doesn't work

[zazen999]

I have also found that in a module they look quite big, but once in the ground they look very weedy and pathetic.

[womble]

I have also found that in a module they look quite big, but once in the ground they look very weedy and pathetic.

Oh pluurease, are you trying to get me banned by feeding me lines for adult jokes.........

[zazen999]

Who sir me sir????

[inearlygaveup]

Well I have just sown some "Laser" Spring Onions to give them a try as just about all my White Lisbon failed.
Will report back when I see anything

[VJay]

I've tried growing them for 2 years but they never thicken. They grow tall and spindly and droop over. I've been growing them in the greenhouse in rich compost. Maybe I need to set them outdoors??

[tamsin]

I grew one tray of lisbon in the greenhouse (plastic) last year and one outside, both thickened up. Mine get quite tall before they get fat. How long did you leave them before ousting?