Pricking Out onions after germination…….

[Rhys]

Charles

I now have plenty of Ailsa Craig Onions ready for pricking out and potting on. As I want to get around 150 – 200 bulbs, I was wondering a couple of things:

1. If I use module trays with 18 modules per tray, 8cm cubed, are they deep enough for rooting purposes or should I use something bigger??
2. If I put five or six in one module to produce a clump, is success strain specific or have you had success with pretty much any onion you’ve tried growing in clumps?

I was thinking of growing 50 individually to get a really good size and 100 in clumps to cut down on space.

Does that sound sensible?

[charles]

You will have a good range of sizes which is always handy. I have grown many varieties in clumps and they all grow fine, from flat Stuttgarter bulbs to Long Red Florence.
18 modules per tray sounds plenty big enough to me, but I am tight on space and am using a 77-module tray this year, which is a little deeper at 5cm. Onions do enjoy some extra compost and I saw some amazingly huge plants at West Dean last weekend, which were sown at Christmas. Mine were sown mid Feb and look good for planting by the end of March, as quite small plants.

[Rhys]

Well, I was hoping to get some huge Kelsaes but the seed was duff. I now have 4 pathetic little nodules trying to poke through about 2 months after sowing, so don’t know what was going on there….

Thanks for the feedback – sounds like I should just proceed as planned.

[Author]

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