Mammoth Veg.

[Stringfellow]

Hi all, hope everyone’s season is going well.

One for next year really; my motivations for growing are health firstly, followed closely by taste. Is there anything to gain by growing mammoth veg if you are uninterested in the show bench? It’s hard not to be impressed at least a little regards the yields of these monster veg and there is obviously a real skill in raising them – so what’s the catch if you are growing primarily for your own table? Poor flavour, poor keeping qualities?

Really interested to hear of gardeners thoughts either for or against here, and any experiences of growing these varieties. Rhys, hope your Kelsae are coming along well. Thanks.

[charles]

I think its another myth, that huge veg are watery flavour.
When grown in soil fed with compost they taste lovely, for example the Kelsae onions I grew and Big Boy tomatoes.
However many show gardeners use artificial fertiliser. I think this leads to less dense growth and some wateriness.
So if I were you I would have a go, its fun to see what happens, and a test of growing skill.

[Stringfellow]

Thanks Charles, I was considering growing some next year and you’ve helped convinced me! My thoughts were along the lines of growing certain monster veg to probably store, either in bags (such as the Kelsae onions) or preserving (such as giant cabbage for sauerkraut) to potentially increase output a bit. Sounds like fun too 🙂

[charles]

Good plan, though I think Kelsae is not a great storing onion, Stuttgarter is better for that

[Stringfellow]

Thanks for that. I’ll do my research before making any varietal decisions! So much to explore…

[Rhys]

Stringfellow – I just harvested my onion crops and, unlike much else this summer, it has been a fantastic success.

The Kelsaes in the garden grew to up to 12 inches circumference, after planting out at the March full moon (under fleece for over a month and a few were lost).

Bedfordshire Champions were transplanted at the start of May and two rows of 15 at 10cm spacing produced a really fine crop of mid-sized onions.

Sturon, resown directly in a cowpat of compost at the April full moon, produced good clumps but the sizes were smaller than Charles as they had 2 months less grow time. The first crop, transplanted out with the Kelsaes at the end of March, all died.

So we have a good crop of different sized onions to eat. Out of interest, the Kelsaes and Bedfordshire Champions I grew in 15cm pots for show (hoping to create uniformity) weren’t any better than those grown in the soil but were slightly more uniform. As a result, I think I’ll ditch growing them in pots in future as it’s expensive and now I am semi-competent in onion growing I can get 50lb odd from 3 square metres.

[Don Foley]

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[Rhys]

Stringfellow – attached is a picture of 75% of my onion harvest: the rest is in the shed drying out for shows (the largest Kelsae and the best Bedfordshire Champion). It was grown in 2 metres * 1.5 metres of undug bed.

[Stringfellow]

Thanks Rhys, glad things, on the whole, have gone well with your onions. The Kelsae sound to be brilliant so top job. My Santero improved yielded fairly well as medium sized onions grown in clumps. We’re using them already and they make our eyes water a bit as they are so full flavoured! I’m certainly including kelsae in the plan for next season so I will keep my fingers crossed against white rot as, unfortunately, our plot has this in places. Best…

[Don Foley]

Hi All,

This is Stur BC20. Sets were planted mid April at 20cm each way in a 6’x3′ raised bed.
They were planted after harvesting last of my spring Cabbage and had about 1″ of Horse Manure spread on surface before sowing. Harvested 2 weeks ago.
Average size is 4″ dia. I haven’t grown this variety before and haven’t tasted them yet, letting them dry out a bit first, but they look delicious.

Don.

[Stringfellow]

Great crop too Don, and the fag packet gives a gauge for the size!

[Rhys]

Stringfellow – van Rijnsburger are supposed to be a very good storage onion. I grew them last year in clumps and got good small-to-medium sized onions, not really for storage though. I got the seeds from Real Seeds and they germinated very well in their first season but not so well this season in the second. Recommend buying fresh seed each year for onions……..

[Don Foley]

Hi Stringfellow,

Thank you. The Fag packet was added for just that purpose.
I must say I am well pleased with this crop from such a small area.
Also none of them bolted despite the up and down weather we had this Spring/Summer.
If they taste as good as they look I will certainly be growing these again.
I should say also it is the first time I have planted sets in Spring as I normally plant Onion Sets in October.

Don.

[Don Foley]

A better view of the harvest,

[Don Foley]

Hi Charles
.
I’m going to plant module grown Leeks in the bed that these Onions came out of this weekend.
Given the size of these Onions I’m thinking an 1″ of compost spread on the surface should be enough to feed the Leeks through the winter. What would you think?

Don.

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