Thursday 12 April 2018

Planting onions and shallots

Last weekend I planted some "Long Red Florence" onions at my Courtmoor Avenue plot. Using a technique that worked well for me last year, I have been growing them in modules, each containing about 3 or 4 plants, and I have planted them out as blocks - without separating them into individual plants.


I made a sort of ad-hoc raised bed without edges for these plants. I raised a ridge about 30cm high, just like I have used for my potatoes, but this time I tamped the soil down very firmly with the back of a spade.


I placed the clumps about 8 inches apart, allowing the plants ample room to develop.


This is a photo from last year, to show you what I'm hoping for:

A clump of "Long Red Florence" onions (immature)

I was also able to plant the first half-dozen of the Shallots I rescued from the neglected plot late last year.


I put them at the end of the row of onions. If enough of the others sprout, I'll start a new row for them. As I've said previously, although I have 45 Shallots, I'll be happy if only 15 of them actually sprout! I just need to grow enough to be able to harvest a decent amount at the right time, and store them properly as my "seed-bank" for next year.


1 comment:

  1. My apologies to anyone who previously commented on this post - your comment was deleted in my attempts to resolve the anti-virus issues. Please feel free to re-comment if you feel so inclined!

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