Getting onions pre-planted and ready to go out to the veg patch is a great thing to do at this time of year!
In their latest video, our friend Martin Fish of Pots & Trowels takes you through the process of planting your onion sets in trays indoors, ready for planting out in a few weeks’ time. You can watch the video below, or keep reading for all the tips, tricks and equipment you need.
When Should I Start Sowing and Planting Direct Outdoors?
Before sowing or planting anything outside, think about soil temperature. If your soil is too cold, then your plants and seedlings won’t be able to grow and thrive. Consider investing in a soil thermometer to check that the planting conditions in your garden are optimal. For most vegetables, you want it to be at least 6°, ideally around 8°, before you start sowing and planting in the ground. If you pop things in when it’s too cold they’ll just sit there, so don’t be in too much of a rush to get things into the garden.
How to Plant Onion Sets
If it’s still a little too cold outside for you to start planting out your onion sets but you’re concerned about leaving them a little too long as they’re starting to sprout, you can still start them off indoors ready for planting in a couple of weeks’ time.
Get some small plug trays and loosely fill them with some multi-purpose compost. Push an onion set into each cell, with the sprouting side facing upwards. Keep them stored in a cold greenhouse, coldframe, or even outside in a nice shaded or sheltered area that still gets a little sun, and they will root very quickly.
If you store them outside, then keep a watchful eye over them and be wary of blackbirds, as they’ll see the little shoots and will sometimes pull them out just to be mischievous. Cover them with a little more compost if you think they might be a little too exposed.
Water them and they will start into growth so that within a week or so, you’ll have nice green shoots. Within 2-3 weeks, they will have filled the plugs with a root system so that you can simply just pop them out and transplant them into the garden. It’s as easy as that!
Top tip: don’t get them too hot or put them somewhere with lots of heat because they’ll get soft. To get the best results, you want to grow them fairly cool.
Where to Buy Darlac Tools
Make life a little easier for yourself by using the right garden tool for the job. For transplanting, potting on and all your other general gardening needs around the greenhouse, you can’t go wrong with our Mini Essentials Set!
You can find our Darlac products in store from your local garden centre, or you can buy selected products direct online from our website. Find your local Darlac stockist here.
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