Tips for growing onions on a very small commercial scale

[Andyt880]

We grow 1.5/2 acres of potatoes to sell though a few honesty boxes locally. I have a small bit of space left in the potato field this year so I decided to buy a few KGs of onion sets to give them a go. Hoping they would be sellable in the honesty box along side the potatoes

I know very little about growing onions or any veg really. I plan to pull up a few drills with the drill plough and set them in manually.

Any advice on spacing, fertiliser, spays, harvesting and storing or general things to do or not do etc would be appreciated.

Like the title says this is small scale, only planting 4/5 kg of sets, just to give it a go, test the water and learn a bit more about simple veg growing

 

[Lincs Lass]

If you planting by hand,firm the ground first ,,make a hole no more than an inch deep ,push the set in and that's it ,,4 inches apart ,no fertiliser,they don't like it and no top dressing else you will get loads of leaf and no bulb.
Keep them watered else they will split .
When you come to lift ,,just pull them and leave out to dry ,the tops will shrivel to nothing,,then store them dry .
I'm still using mine from the garden that were lifted last October,,just about had the best of them .

 

[Lincs Lass]

You can plant them late September and grow over winter ,very hardy but they can bolt in spring and run to seed

 

[Lincs Lass]

Go wider with the spacing if you are hand weeding ,,wide enough to get a hoe between them .

 

[Andyt880]

You can plant them late September and grow over winter ,very hardy but they can bolt in spring and run to seed

If I manage to get these first ones any where close to the point of harvest I might plant a few more behind the early spuds in late summer. Or maybe by the time I get these first ones planted and weeded all summer I will be ready to fire the remaining sets in the bin

 

[Bogweevil]

We grow 1.5/2 acres of potatoes to sell though a few honesty boxes locally. I have a small bit of space left in the potato field this year so I decided to buy a few KGs of onion sets to give them a go. Hoping they would be sellable in the honesty box along side the potatoes

I know very little about growing onions or any veg really. I plan to pull up a few drills with the drill plough and set them in manually.

Any advice on spacing, fertiliser, spays, harvesting and storing or general things to do or not do etc would be appreciated.

Like the title says this is small scale, only planting 4/5 kg of sets, just to give it a go, test the water and learn a bit more about simple veg growing

You have probably left it a bit late, onions bulb in response to short days once they have enough leaves, and that daylength has passed, but to be fair I have not yet known anyone plant them in May, so you never know! They to whack in before April in future.

Autumn ones are OK mature in July but don't store well, so unless you are selling potatoes in July and August might not be a good choice.

Allow 40-45cm between rows if hand or tractor hoeing and 10cm between sets. Sets are relatively expensive so you might as well make each one count. People buy with their eyes favouring larger bulbs.

Good luck. Next year swedes?

 

[Andyt880]

Yes was thinking it might be getting late.

I don’t know about the swedes. Really would need to be investing in machinery etc to get into the veg properly. Hard to know if it would be justified on a small scale. I know very little about growing any veg apart from potatoes.
Ground would get fairly wet here in autumn and through winter so anything that needs lifted late isn’t ideal. Might end up more work than it’s worth

 

[Lincs Lass]

The old popular varieties ,,Stutgard and Sturon keep very well just don't store any that run to seed ,chuck them

 

[Andyt880]

The old popular varieties ,,Stutgard and Sturon keep very well just don't store any that run to seed ,chuck them

If they start to bolt at all is that them past storing or is it just if they are allowed to bolt and get to seed. What causes them to bolt before they are ready?

 

[Lincs Lass]

Yes ,easy to spot if they are bolting , big thick stem ,not like the regular leaves,,the bulb doesn't swell up .

 

[Netherfield]

You might try growing some reds as well, I used to grow Red Baron, with great success.

Only for home and family use, and when family shrunk and my backed ached more I gave up bothering.