Onion Hi-Keeper

[HTurley]

Hi everyone, hope you are all enjoying the sunshine?

Just a quickie - does anyone know when Onion Hi-Keeper should be ready to harvest. They were sown last Autumn and 1/2 were planted out November ish and the rest planted out Jan/Feb ish.

Some of them have now bent over but they are the tiniest things i've ever seen! My spring onions look fatter.

I've since read that beginners should use onions sets rather than seeds so next year i'll do that (perhaps someone can recommend the best variety that is nice and easy and gives you really nice big onions) but is there anything I can do to make this lot more "onion" like :-)

Thanks all.

Haze

p.s. I ate my first pea from the pod this week. There was only 1 pod on the whole plant but hey - it's a start :-)

[zazen999]

About August/Sept they should be ready.

Have a thread search for 'onions' and 'onion' for various ideas about what to do, including fingering them, popping some fertiliser on etc etc.

[smallblueplanet]

...search for 'onions' and 'onion' for various ideas about what to do, including fingering them...

Do what!????

[Demeter]

"Fingering"?!

haze - I grew Hi-Keeper (and one other variety) from seed this year too. I sowed them in early September I think (might have been late August) but did not get around to planting them until March. Both varieties are MUCH smaller than the set-grown onions, even the sets I put in in March are bigger and fatter than the autumn-sown HKs. It might be because of the delay in planting them out but maybe it is just that much slower from seed?

For next year I will still grow from seed I think but will sow earlier, get them planted in autumn rather than waiting until winter/spring, and see if that makes a difference! The seed packet said to sow in September, but a lot of people on here seemed to be sowing their onions last year in July so this time I may follow suit...

Anyhow, I used some of the HKs as spring onions, but now my set-grown ones from last autumn are ready and I am eating those, so will leave the HKs well alone now and give them a chance to grow on a bit!

[Demeter]

Aha
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tml#post455504

[gojiberry]

I tried hi-keeper, they germinated and got to a good size to plant out but didn't do anything after that and just seemed to wither away. I then put some sets in and have a very good crop of onions.

Ian

[HTurley]

Thanks for the replies everyone :-)

I've eaten a couple as spring onions and think i'll go for sets next year instead.

Thanks

Haze