Alliums Aloft - The Diary of a rooftop Onion Whisperer....

OooooKAY. I've got pots of information about germinating my (potential) Show Onions. But how about planting them on ?

Weeell... the advise from Robinsons reads thusly...

"Prepare the bed with two forkfulls of Pea Haulms, and a wheelbarrow of Rotted Horse Manure, for each three square yards"

How cool is THIS ? I actually UNDERSTAND that ? A year ago, they may as well have been speaking Greek.

RIGHT.... my Runner Beans, plus my Second Planting of peas, produced neither runner beans or peas, but they HAVE produced lots of Haulms, which I will dutifully harvest.
(tick)

A colleage at work owns a horse, and can provide me with BUCKET-LOADS of well-rotted horse manure.
(tick)

So I need to mix them altogether in one of my larger Plastic Boxes. Whats next ?


Stir in the tears of a maiden pure
And the sweat of a thrice-brindled unicorn

Hmmm....that COULD be a problem. "Maiden Pure's" are not common in Mapperley.

OK.. whats the rest of it ?


Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—

Oh, thats just downright obscure

I mean... REALLY... where am I going to find a CAULDRON in this day and age ? Wilko's don't stock them ?

Hmmm... I wonder if a disposable barbecue tray will be acceptable ?

I'll get back to you on this one !

Spilt my coffee reading this roofy, still chuckling now.

About time 'Witch?' magazine did a cauldron review.

Seriously, though, the Robinsons advice might be ok in an allotment but not essential even there. So, to pot your plants on all you need is a good quality potting compost/multi-purpose compost (I use Jack's Magic at the moment). First potting can be into 3 inch pots, second potting into 5 inch pots with a similar compost.

For the final potting a stronger mix would be needed. I usually mix my own using four parts potting compost, 4 parts John Innes No 3 plus some added slow release fertiliser (Osmocote Exact). Although I have 50-litre pots, I was reminded the other day that 20-litre pots have grown onions which won the National Championships. Should have remembered that as I now need 1,000 litres of compost for 20 pots

Morning roofy. Just re-read my post above and realised that I was not very clear with the compost used. Where it says final potting I should have said potting into the 50 litre pots, which I use instead of growing in open ground. As weight is a factor you could just use a good peat-based multi-purpose compost with added slow release fertiliser which would be lighter in weight to fill your outdoor beds. The reason I use pots to grow them to maturity is so I can move them under cover if weather is too wet, or into a cool spot if too hot.

As for growing on under lights I have used a propagator light to help root dahlia cuttings but not to grow on onions. A lot of top exhibitors now use grow lights for onions and they are on for 24 hours a day from time of sowing (usually November) until March when lighting is reduce slowly to 16 hours per day. To be honest I would only consider using them if I was growing several hundred.

Like you I am not growing many and I am hoping to buy plants in from another exhibitor (probably Medwyns of Anglesey). The plants are not cheap but it is less bother than setting up a growing system indoors.

Hope this helps.

Onion growing - like the onion itself - is a multi-layered thing. Peel away one layer, and a new one is revealed.

Frequently, tears are involved !

Nor me, Moonlight