Onions from Sets

Know your onions

Few cooks would disagree that the most useful vegetable in the kitchen are onions. What’s more these vegetables are among the easiest to grow in the garden. Experienced gardeners grow their onions from seed; this method gives them a greater choice of varieties and of course is very cost effective. Unwins sells a wide choice of onion seed varieties.
Gardeners that want a fast and efficient way to grow a crop of onions are better opting for onion sets. These are specially prepared, ready to plant baby onions that will mature into large, tasty onion globes by mid to late summer. Onion sets are one of the easiest crops to grow. Unwins sells four different onion varieties in handy prepacks that contain dozens of ready to plant bulbs.

Choose from:

 Unwins ‘Stuttgarter’

A firm favourite for its sweet flavour, high yields and great storing properties.

 

 

Unwins ‘Sturon’

A tried and tested traditional favourite with gardeners and allotment growers. Sturon produces large, strongly flavoured onions and has good resistance to bolting. RHS Award of Garden Merit.

 

 

Unwins ‘Setton'

A tasty, round onion with a great taste and excellent storage properties. RHS Award of Garden Merit.

 

 

Unwins ‘Red Barron’ - ring the changes with this tasty, easy to grow red variety. Great for salads and garnishes but with a strong flavour for cooking too.

 

 

 

Some Unwins stockists sell these onion varieties as loose sets (bulbs) so you can choose to buy exactly how many onions you want to grow. Alternatively Unwins sells small packs ‘Try These’ Onions of Unwins ‘Stuttgarter’ and Unwins ‘Sturon’ and also Unwins ‘Golden Gourmet’ another RHS Award of Garden Merit variety that is highly acclaimed for its mild taste and large round bulbs that store well. The plants are also more resistant to bolting.

How to grow
Onions need plenty of sun to mature and grow best in a fertile but well drained soil; this avoids waterlogging that can encourage fungal rots.
Grow your onions in regimented rows or blocks for convenience it is then easier to weed between them. Bear in mind that each set (mini onion bulb) will swell and grow into a bulb up to the size of a tennis ball, so you need to leave plenty of room between each one. Plant them with 10cm (4inches) or more between each bulb and when growing in rows leave at least 30cm (12inches) between the rows.
Prepare the soil first by digging it over so that it is soft and crumbly. If the soil is poor then dig in some Westland organic Farmyard Manure. For best results plant spring onions sets in March (for autumn planting sets see below). Each set should be gently pushed into the soil surface until just the very tip is protruding.

 

 

Alternatively to give your onion sets a head start, you can plant individual sets into small pots of West+ Advanced Compost for all Plants or the new Westland organic Vegetable Growing Compost. Place these in a frost-free greenhouse for the roots to develop and then plant outside from March.

 

If you have sets left over and little room to plant them, then plant them together in a small area and use them as salad onions as the leaves develop in spring.

Harvesting
In mid to late summer when the leaves start to yellow and die off lift the onions slightly out of the ground so that the sun can reach the base of the bulbs. As soon as the foliage has died off completely the onions can be further dried inside the greenhouse before stringing them and storing them for winter use.

Autumn Onion Sets
In recent years plant experts have discovered a way to treat onion sets so that some may be planted in the autumn while the ground is still warm from the summer sun and moist from the autumn rain. This gives them a good start before the onset of winter and allows a root system to establish well. The result is an onion crop that matures earlier than spring planted sets. Unwins sells three types of autumn planting onion sets:
It’s own exclusive Unwins Onion ‘First Early’, Unwins Onion ‘Swift’ and Unwins Onion ‘Electric’. Each one is available in packs of 50 sets for autumn planting.

  

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