GROWING ONIONS FROM BULBILS
If you want uniformity for the shows, then this is the way to go!
Iwas able to retrieve a few bulbils from the heads of some of the onions I’d replanted last year, and the best of these I hope to plant up in December when I also sow my onion seed. When I say best, I really mean by size, as the bulbils can vary so much on each head. I’ve had bulbils over 2.5cm long and bigger than most onion sets you see, while others have been half the size of my little fingernail. There’s no doubt that if you want uniformity in the shape of your onions, then growing them from bulbils is the way forward. Some years ago, growers I knew well used to say that you’d never get the same size onions from bulbils as you could from seed. These days things have moved on considerably in the onion-growing world, with top growers reselecting strains over many years. This re-selection has come together with increased knowledge regarding how to grow, meaning that to win at the top level you need a set around 53cm to 58cm in circumference. Of course, there’s no real limit to the size of a quality set of onions you can stage, provided you can harvest them on the right skin giving a good skin finish all over. At the time Vincent Throup was on top of his game in the early 2000s, he had a set of three onions in a class with each one measuring 68cm round. So if he could accomplish it then, it can certainly be done today. For the last couple of years I’ve been growing both my onions and leeks in the Autopot system, using Canna Coco Professional as a growing medium and I was able to grow an onion for Chelsea in May at just over 58cm round.