GETTING TO KNOW MY ONIONS
Rozie
Posts: 26
I'm a bit of a novice at growing veg. I planted onion sets in the Spring, following the info. in a Which? publication. To protect from birds and mice I covered the bed with netting raised above the bed about 30cm at one side and about twice that height at the other. To weed the bed I could lift the net out of the way. This worked fine until the onion shoots got tall enough to go through the netting then I couldn't move the net without damaging the growing shoots. Those that I caught (most of them) bent over and the onions, still very small, began to ripen. When I came to lift them, this week, I found the largest are no more than 3cm diameter, many hardly seem to have grown at all, and some have begun to grow again with fresh shoots. If I leave them in the ground will they grow during the autumn, and produce decent sized onions? As they are scattered about the bed could I possibly lift them, taking care not to disturb the roots and plant them in a more compact arrangement so that I can use the rest of the bed for something else? Could I store the other very small ones and replant them in the spring? (I have resolved the netting problem by creating an enclosure similar to those in the Beechgrove garden, in which I can stand, and covering all my veg. plot. Now everything is safe from the pigeons!))
Posts
You can pickle the onions that are big enough. If you try to plant the little bulbs this Autumn or next Spring they will go straight to flower and will be useless.
Thank you Welshonion. I think I'll wait 'til Spring to put in new sets. I don't think the quantity of the onions I've collected is worth the effort of pickling them. I might just let them flower and enjoy them that way! As for the birds, the pigeons which nest in my neighbour's garden, forage daily in mine and will try just about anything. I know that mice can dig. I was mystified last year (my first attempt at onions) when several onions disappeared within days of planting. I found and destroyed a mouse's nest not far from the onion bed. In it were three of my onions!