Purchase made, 50 Onions Sturon variety bought.
Described as ” hardy”, code word for any fool could
grow them. This year my focus is crop, not flavour or
use, my competitive streak just wants results…..lots
of onions.A beautiful plate of onions to show off my
imagined natural gardening ability. Others wont admit
these things I am under no illusions. Also on the back
of my “hardy” beans hiding out in the soil I am trying to
up my stats.
To succeed in any sport you have to play the odds, success comes to those who work at it and prepare, it is far more than just talent and luck,lamenting the lack of the later is a defeatist attitude. So research was undertaken. GIY Ireland have an excellent video on sowing onion sets, and I took notes!
First you have to selected the right sets, I suppose I thought, somewhat naively, that a pack of fifty sets would contain 50 viable sets. They need to be rounded at top almost like neck and shoulders. Avoid the ones that have germinated already, they also should be firm to squeeze.
RIGHT WRONG
So what next, fail to prepare and prepare to fail, bet you have heard that before and writing it is every bit as annoying. Add whingy voice and I can feel an irrational rebellion coming on. Having said that be sure to prepare the soil, nice and crumbly. A good tip rather than fiddling with string is to lay out lines with sticks, take it from someone who has fiddled with string.
The rows need to be 12cm apart, the distance between the onions depends on how big you want your onions to be the bigger the distance, the bigger the onions. With your well worked soil all you have to do is push the set into the soil so it just peaks out.
Finally and very importantly cover with netting or chicken wire or else the birds will get them. You can remove this once they take root.
I sowed five rows of about 7 sets approximately 35 sets, I am ready to play the odds.
April 17, 2012
mdedubois
thegardenaffair 
