In with the new!
I’m trying two new onions this year to show in the under 250g class
Now that the onions for the over 250g (8oz) classes have been sown, I’m ready to sow for the under 250g (8oz) classes. I’ve grown many different varieties for this class over the years, with the earliest and most successful one being ‘Buffalo’. This is a Japanese variety that you can sow during early autumn for lifting in early June. It has a lovely skin finish, with the bulbs being unbeatable, at the time for showing during early to mid-August. After that period it does go downhill, with the shoulder usually softening up due to disease.
‘Toughball’ is another Japanese type that can be sown early with the added advantage that it does keep much longer than ‘Buffalo’ and can be shown at September shows. Some growers sow this variety as early as the beginning of September without it going to seed. I’ve always sown my onions during early January, as this suited me better in the days when I had a small greenhouse at home and was always struggling for space when it was full of rooted leek bulbils.
This year I’m sowing a little earlier, with two of my newest onions, ‘Chico’ F1 and ‘Fasto’ F1, being sown this week. Both of these bulbs are globular in shape, with ‘Fasto’ having a deepershaped body. ‘Fasto’ is also a single-centred bulb, which means a very high percentage of them are perfectly round. Sowing this early, with heat and light, will give me fully harvested onions for the NVS Championships at Harrogate as well as for my Malvern display during the last weekend in September.
I space the seed out evenly on the surface of Levington F1S, which is a professional compost, low in nutrients and made specifically for growing seedlings and young plants. I press the seed down into the compost in a full-sized seed tray using a flat board and cover with superfine Vermiculite. I then water the compost and Vermiculite by floating the tray in a container of water until fully saturated. I add some Biosys to the water, which will give me a very healthy root system and eventually a healthy plant free from diseases such as botrytis.