Vegmonkey and the Mrs.

The Japanese onions i planted ages ago are all starting to come good.  The tops have flopped over and yellowed, and most of the bulbs have swelled. I was in doubt a while ago as to whether or not to bother with these, but i suppose that nothing needs the ground until now, so it seems worthwhile.

The ones above are the ones which began to have seed heads growing on them (bizarrely a few are no bigger than the sets we planted!), we’ve harvested about another 10 or so since them which were a lot bigger, and had the beginnings of a papery coating.  The only problem with the Senshyu variety is they don’t keep long.

As the maincrop onions are getting near edible too, it seems we will have onions right up until Christmas, which is nice

Not only do the onions fill a winter gap where the soil would otherwise be unused, they fit perfectly into the rotation. Bed 1 (for want of a better name!) is the roots bed (houses carrots, parsnips, leeks and onions) which will become the Cucurbit bed next year. I don’t need the half being used by the onions until Late June/Early July, so the onions will sit happily. They will be replaced by a variety of squash, raised in pots and transplanted in later.

When i plant the standard onion sets next year, there will be no less than 200 onions sitting in a space no bigger than 2.5 square metres. Easy as that. Whoever said veg growing wasn’t easy

The most difficult job this winter, and incidentally, one of the most rewarding, is to (realistically) update the planting scheme, without overdoing it.

Has anyone had any bad experiences with Senshyu or other overwintering onions? I don’t mean muggings or bad attitudes! , but pests or problems. A bit of advance warning is never a bad thing.