I have to say, I was a little bit annoyed at the onions I tried to grow during the summer. They ended up too small and I was left feeling like I needn’t had bothered. I suspect that the soil I grew my onions in was a little bit on the heavy side and probably a little too rich with clay. I’ve never grown winter onions before, but I hope my autumnal onion efforts will this time pay off.
Trying to find winter onions in my local garden center was a mission in itself – thankfully Court Farm in Tolworth/Worcester Park came up trumps.
I’ve decided to grow two types of winter onions, Troy which is a white onion and Red Winter, which as the name suggests is a red winter onion. This time I’m growing them in a completely different spot than before, in two areas that have been nourished with material from the compost heap and gets good amounts of sunlight.
I dug over the two beds and removed the weeds as best I could – raking out any impurities from the ground. I had around 50 sets of each, so I could afford to have around seven bulbs to a row.
I planted the bulbs about an inch into the ground and covered the tops so to try and deter birds and foxes from disturbing the bulbs – however, I visited the plot and noticed that a couple of the birds had picked out a couple of bulbs and dropped them (they must think they’re worms or good nest material). This autumn has been a fairly dry one, so I’ve been sure to water these bulbs at least once a week to assist germination.
In the middle of the summer the leaves will start to die down – which means they’ll be ready for harvesting. Onions are a great staple to grow at the allotment – if stored properly they’ll last for days and even weeks.
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