Own onion sets

[jackarmy]

Ailsa Craig i believe you can also sow in august( ish) for planting out in september ( ish) as an overwintering onion as i intend doing exactly that around that time

Ah, missed Jays post there somehow .
How does the " grow as sets " thing work anyway ?, sow in august, wait till their set size then stop them ?, bit confused as to why tbh.

[keat63]

I've only ever grown onions from sets or from spring onions which wrinkled in the fridge.
We do however currently have some growing from seed on the allotment (as well as sets).
Just thought it would be a good experiment to try and grow my own sets for next year.

What I wouldn't want to do however, is rely on them for the whole on my crop next year.
Imagine if they were all sterile, or bolted etc.
As this would be a first for me, I personally, have no tried and tested method.

I like the idea of growing some in late summer, which I might try.

[keat63]

I had about 100 little green shoots last night.

[keat63]

My home grown onion sets went in the ground this weekend.
I also had about 15 in peat pots planted in the greenhouse around six weeks ago, as a head start.

I'm not relying on these for my main crop just in case they fail or bolt etc, so I've some shop bought sets to go in, maybe next weekend, and I'm also growing some from sead in peat pots in the greenhouse, for maybe planting in the ground in a months time.

[keat63]

Guys.

Just thought it courteous that I report back my results.
My onions are doing rather splendid, nice big and plump.
Whilst it's probably a little early to start harvesting just yet, my father and myself took one each (purely for scientific purposes :-))
Based on my successful results, I', starting a new sowing agian today.

Maybe next weekend, I'll post some photos.

[burnie]

Well done, I like it when a plan comes together(shall we form our own "A" team, bags I being Mr T lol), my over wintered sets are poor, but my seed grown onions are doing well, I think I shall abandon planting sets next year.

[Tripmeup]

Well done on that..
Used to grow from seed too but gave up due to time involved and handiness of sets..
Will go back to it at some point tho..
Looking forward to seeing pics

[keat63]

It wasn't overly difficult or time consuming to be honest.
I sprinkled some seeds in a planter in my garden.
Left them alone until they were set sized, then stopped watering.

After about two weeks, I took them out to dry, and then planted the sets in spring.

I know that sets are not particularly expensive, but seeds are cheaper still.

Some of those autumn sets last year were not big enough to harvest, they were much like spring onions, so I left these in the planter in my greenhouse over winter, then late spring I moved the planter outdoors.

These onions never really matured and have now died back and dried up.
So yesterday, I took them out of the planter with a view to seing how they perform as winter sets.
Experiment No2.

I'm guessing they'll bolt but it's worth a try for nothing.

[keat63]

As promised.