Onions or to be accurate Alliums are the backbone of most of our cooking in fact they are the background of more or less every nations cuisine and should be one of the first things you grow.
They are quite easy from sets (small baby onions) which, if your trying to get children interested in gardening, are so perfect! And the sooner children start gardening the sooner they will try new and different foods and flavors.
Shallots are I think more flavorsome and just as easy so get them in now! Or you can start the sets by pushing them gently into the top of a Jiffy 7 (see my other post on planting) which means they will be bigger at planting out. Hopefully this may stop one of the perennial problems and the sets being pulled out of the ground by birds, they don’t seem to do this to eat it seems more out of curiosity..
I would recommend shallot ‘JEROMOR‘ or ‘Cuisses de Thepoulet du Poitou
named because it looks like a chicken’s thigh, like a long banana shaped shallot.
The main difference between shallots and onions is that the single shallot set will form a bunch of 8 to 12 blubs. Whereas a single onion set will produce 1 larger version of itself.this photo shows how big shallots can grow
The onion Red baron a red onion that has a excellent mild flavour and is also useful in salads.
I believe that in a garden as small the 10 Minute Garden it makes far more sense with the limited space to grow shallots because you will get a higher yield per square metre and also as they are a better return on your time and money.
It is important to remember that for onions the growing season splits into two – the first half until the summer solstice when onions will produce lots of green top growth, and the second half as the days shorten when all of that top growth will be used to convert the energy from the sun and the food from the soil to make the bulb swell, so your feeding routine should be high in nitrogen up until the summer solstice to get the maximum top growth and from then on very low nitrogen high potassium and potash feed to get the maximum crop from swelling bulbs.
Another excellent way to increase your yield if you are growing onions or shallots from seed is to use the technique of multiple sowing – an explanation of this simple technique look under the episode of the 10 Minute Gardner and entitled ‘ Multiple seeding in Jiffy sevens’.
The one thing you will notice that the first onions that you grow yourself will have a sweeter flavour and prefect for those delicious homemade onion tarts.
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