This is getting silly isn't it? You may remember in an earlier post I mentioned planting some of our onion and shallot sets in modules in the greenhouse.
I think I'm becoming slightly obsessed with looking back at what was happening this time last year. The onion and shallots pictured below were planted in modules on 18 February. A few had started to shoot in the net bags that they had been delivered in so I thought they were raring to grow. Maybe they were until they realised that in the real world conditions were not so cosy!
So far the shallot shoots have refused to venture out of the bulb and a small number of onions are only just showing their noses.
Last year I took this photo which showed the onions and shallots were off to a good start. It was a pity things didn't continue on a positive note. In April after they were planted out conditions were poor and they never really recovered from the setback.
I had hoped that the second lot of onion sets would be planted directly on the plot but conditions being as they are I decided to plant a second lot in modules. I planted another tray of each of the four varieties Karmen, Stuttgarter, Rumba and Sturon.
To be honest if I hadn't planted them I wouldn't really be able to tell which of the trays of onions had been planted first. I just hope they all soon decide to get a move on. Let's just hope that this year we will experience the opposite to last year and once March is out of the way, April will arrive with warmth and sunshine which will continue through summer.
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You certainly like your onions Sue. My brother-in-law, Dave grows fantastic onions on his allotment in Oxford. We eat masses and masses of onions but am ashamed to admit that they have such fantastic large cheap ones at our local farm-gate shop in the village I do not grow them! Now leeks that are twice the price and easier for me to grow...thats different.
ReplyDeleteWe are just about self sufficinet in onions Roger and supply my sister too. If we had a lack of space then maybe we would be the same as you but we have space to grow some of everything we like to eat and don't really buy many vegetables at all.
DeleteI am really hoping that this slow start to the growing season will be followed by several months of gradually increasing warmth and no extremes. Well, I've always been an optimist. I am hardening off the shallots I am growing from seed without much expectation that they will amount to anything, but it is the peas that are really bugging me, they just don't want to germinate!! And you are supposed to be able to sow them in February!!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the same Janet that this year once the weather improves it will hang around rather than last year when early spring sun encouraged plants to grow and then the weather went downhill and knocked things hard back some never to recover.
DeleteAt my allotments Norman is the 'onion master' and he has them in already. They've been in around 2 weeks, under netting and are looking really good. His are always the biggest and the best and ready first. I tend to just leave mine late though and last year they seemed stunted for ages and I thought I'd left them far too late but they caught up and have been brilliant. I like them a bit on the smaller side and like you, we're totally self sufficient with them because the harvest in summer lasts until the next one. I'd be lost without my own onions. In fact we're eating them in our meal tonight. I'm concerned about peas this year. Last year mine died, no idea why. I blamed dobbies seeds actually but it could have been the weather so I do hope we get some nice weather soon and I can get my peas in. They've always seemed so easy and reliable to me but last year has made me worried! I think it's great how you can look back on last year. Fingers crossed for a good growing season ahead!
ReplyDeleteWe are still eating ours too, Anna in spite of losing lots last year. They didn't like the awful weather after they were planted. We tend to leave everything late until conditions improve and usually they catch up.
DeleteNo sign of my onions shooting either, although the shallots which are outside have about 2in. of growth - all is not lost.
ReplyDeleteShallots do seem to be a bit hardier Elaine but having said that ours just aren't making an effort!
DeleteYour slugish onions are making me feel better about not getting my veg patch underway. I know I should have been making a start but what with raising chicks, publishing my book and lambing iminent, I am a little behind. Perhaps I can make up for it if I can get things growing in between lambing duty!
ReplyDeleteWe've never been into March feeling we have done nothing on the plot, Sue. We visited a farm at the weekend where lambing was underway. One new born lamb had seen a cockerel for the first time which had strayed into the lambing pen and it was so funny watching it trying to figure out what it was looking at.
DeleteWe're still waiting for our onion sets to be delivered... Shallots are sitting on the plot wishing they were back inside I think!!
ReplyDeleteAre you waiting for heat treated sets Belinda as this are often late arriving.
DeleteHope the weather will be suitable for them soon. I am trying to find good shallots bulb to try grow here.
ReplyDeleteThere doesn't seem any sign of improvements in the weather, Diana. Hope you find some suitable shallots.
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