I have always planted my onion sets straight outside and have had mixed success depending on the weather and how long they have had to mature.
Well, this year was no different, you may remember my post back in March when I described planting onion sets in the baths. I had quite a few onions left over and decided it was time to follow my brother-in-law's advice and pop them into cells in the greenhouse to get going. This was also a good excuse to give us time to work out when they would eventually be planted out.
Just to compare: the photo above is the direct sown onions, planted on 9 March and below are the onions in cells in the greenhouse, planted on 16 March. (Oops, except for the middle right tray which was onion seed sown last autumn and which didn't really cope with winter.)
I don't claim to be much of an expert when it comes to onions but I think my brother-in-law definitely has the right idea by starting them off in cells.
As we don't like to hang around too much (and their roots were starting to get quite long) we thought we'd hurry on and get the onions in the ground. Two rows of onions planted and then cloched for protection until they are established. Another (almost) 2 rows with the tiddly little leftovers at the end, all cloched awaiting summer. I did say we had a lot of onions. All we have to do is hope they grow big and strong over the summer, then we need to learn how to store them properly!
With a short growing season, we also have as many transplants as possible. The only redeeming factor here in Canada, is the length of our growing days. By June, we have almost 18 hours of light, so things really grow fast. Love your idea of planting in the bathtubs
ReplyDeleteFor some reason we seem to have an abundance of baths lying around but they are really handy for veg. With 18 hrs of light I can understand why you travel north after the winter.
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