Medwyn Williams tries new ways with onions
I’m delaying sowing them and using a different method for my dual displays
I’m trying a different sowing method for my large exhibition onions. Some growers may have sown them already but I’ve waited until now to help prevent them from maturing too early.
I usually sow onions in a full-sized seed tray, well-spaced on top of F1S or F2S growing medium. Once seedlings reached the crook stage, I’d transplant them into 50 or 60-cell trays. This time, because I’m also growing for Chelsea, I’m preparing the seed trays with two different mixtures, filling the bottom half with Humax Original and topping with F2S.
I’ve had a plastic template made with 135 evenly-spaced holes drilled and countersunk and I’m sowing a single seed per hole. Then I’ll lift the template, flatten the seeds gently with a board and sprinkle them with super fine grade Vermiculite. I float the tray in water until the medium is thoroughly saturated from the bottom. The seedlings stay in the tray until they’re well developed for their first pot.
Last year’s onions were the best I’ve grown for some years, with the biggest at 70cm (27.5in) in circumference and plenty more at around 63cm (25in). However they matured very early, partly influenced by the extremely hot weather, so although they had the wow factor on my Malvern display, they were over the top and out of condition.
I could have lifted them in mid-July at around 55cm (22in) but they’d still have been finished too early for late September. For the best finish you want to lift them on the right skin – with the last fresh green leaf intact on the bulb. That way they dry out evenly all over without leaving a tide mark – a judging term for a dividing line on the bulb between the brown colour and a green or white shade beneath. l Follow me on Twitter @ medwynsofangles.