Too late to plant onion sets?

[fran]

I got 2 for the price of one at my local garden centre last week. Is it worth planting them or will it be a waste of time? We do usually have long warm autumns in south-east London, but is it all down to day length?

Thank you, Fran

[JimmerG]

Fran,

I planted a load a week ago, and they've now all got healthy little green shoots - If we get a reasonably long hot summer (!?!?) I'm sure they'll be fine. As you say summers do seem to be starting and ending later recently.

I'd stick 'em in and see what happens.

J

[SarzWix]

I think I've got this right... Up to the longest day, they grow leaves, after the longest day they use the leaves to make food which is stored in the bulb (the bulb swells). So, you might end up with pickling size onions because they won't have time to grow much leaf.

[Nicos]

Not heard of that Sarz!....

It'll be interesting to see how mine grow as they don't have much top growth yet BUT....I needed to transplant a couple and took a big soil ball with them- their root growth was HUGE!!!

...interestingly my soil is high in nitrogen ( new bed from virgin field soil growing loads of clover=nitrogen fixing)
Nitrogen is supposed to be good for leaf growth..maybe they'll suddenly expand within the next 16 days!!!!

[Snadger]

They've still got the onion sets for sale in the local Instore..........they haven't even reduced them either!

[Two_Sheds]

You can try them, but don't expect them to get very big.

Onions from seed grow larger as they wait till the longest day (in June) to start to bulb up, and they carry on bulbing up much longer than sets do.

[allotmentlady]

Wyevale are selling them 50p a bag.......u can try them but I agree with Sarz, u may only get them to be the size of pickling onions, if u do grow em, please let us know how u get on, interested to hear ur results!

[MagicLady]

I might try sticking some in this weekend - pickling size will be fine