Onions are greedy feeders so adding anything rich in nutrients to the soil will help. I also use fish, blood and bone and mix a few good handfulls into a bucket of home made compostm with each set getting a trowelfull when they are planted out (I start them in modules in the cold GH.) The resulting onions are pretty consistently tennis-ball sized, sometimes larger.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
I think a lot of people order FYM and when it is delivered it is still too fresh and needs stacking and rotting down., But they put it on anyway and then have problems.
Used fish blood and bone this year for my sets and had a great crop. Will follow this years potatoes with Brassicas and Roots, two plots. Alliums to follow this years roots, hence the need for fertilizer.
I usually like to plant a batch of sets at the allotment at this time of year I know the theory is that you don't gain anything by it and that both new year and autumn varieties harvest quite close together in the end but I hate seeing bare soil over the winter months, But Bob's routine sounds rather good. Only problem is, I have too many things on the go in the greenhouse at the beginning of the year. I presume you are not talking about starting off with modules in autumn Bob?
No, Madeleine, I start them off in Spring. I've tried Autumn planting with a few things (onions and broad beans come to mind) but they never do very well for me - having clay soil probably doesn't help - I would imagine if you have lighter, better drained soil it would worth trying though.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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Onions are greedy feeders so adding anything rich in nutrients to the soil will help. I also use fish, blood and bone and mix a few good handfulls into a bucket of home made compostm with each set getting a trowelfull when they are planted out (I start them in modules in the cold GH.) The resulting onions are pretty consistently tennis-ball sized, sometimes larger.
I wonder where the "thou shalt not add manure or compost" theory came from then
I think a lot of people order FYM and when it is delivered it is still too fresh and needs stacking and rotting down., But they put it on anyway and then have problems.
Used fish blood and bone this year for my sets and had a great crop. Will follow this years potatoes with Brassicas and Roots, two plots. Alliums to follow this years roots, hence the need for fertilizer.
I usually like to plant a batch of sets at the allotment at this time of year I know the theory is that you don't gain anything by it and that both new year and autumn varieties harvest quite close together in the end but I hate seeing bare soil over the winter months, But Bob's routine sounds rather good. Only problem is, I have too many things on the go in the greenhouse at the beginning of the year. I presume you are not talking about starting off with modules in autumn Bob?
No, Madeleine, I start them off in Spring. I've tried Autumn planting with a few things (onions and broad beans come to mind) but they never do very well for me - having clay soil probably doesn't help - I would imagine if you have lighter, better drained soil it would worth trying though.
My autumn onion sets were a disaster last winter.total waste of space.