🌱 Tony‘s Allotment Tales 🌱🏴 Stop the Genocide

Thank you.

Yes, I preferred to use credit card information rather than let some facial recognition spyware use my computer.

I was encouraged to try a bit harder after last year’s results, I think I’ve done a bit better and we should have enough to last, they start sprouting in March anyway so there’s not much point in us growing more.

Good summary, thanks.

I'm not sure, I'm hoping an expert shows up for you, maybe @martinefenn.bsky.social

I'm not sure why they can get bigger, maybe it's because you can sow seeds really early so they get more time to grow, large onions for exhibition are grown from seed sown in January or earlier. Another advantage of seed is that it's unlikely that you will introduce diseases like white rot.

If you’re here for more onion content I could always sow some soon to overwinter 😂

Hmm, a great diving beetle? Could have mistaken your windscreen for water when flying at night?
@tillingtonchum.bsky.social

www.charlesdowding.co.uk/resources/mu...

I think they can get bigger from seed, also you rarely lose any due to bolting which is a thing with sets and it's easier to multisow, growing them in clumps of 2-4 plants which helps pack them in, plus you can get a bigger range of varieties when you use seed.

Thanks, plenty to keep us going until they get sprouty in March, plus some for the friend who gives us horse manure and some for the local food hub.

Clumps (2-4 seedlings) were planted 24 cm apart (5 across a 115 cm bed), rows 30 cm apart. I prepared the no dig bed by growing white mustard over the winter, cutting down in February and covering with a thin layer of well-rotted horse manure, onions were grown with a living mulch of white clover.

Seeds are sown indoors (4 seeds per module) towards the end of February and planted out in late April, our soil is heavy clay to which some additions of organic soil improver and manure have been made.

Time to pop out and get some air freshener 😂

Some boxes of onions and shallots lying on the ground, shallots (top left) are Zebrune, brown onions below them are Rijnsburger and Hylander F1, long red onions (top right) are Long Red Florence, round red onions (lower right) are Red Baron & Red Flash F1.

Onion harvest completed, the brown onions and round red onions came from one 3 sq m bed, the shallots (top left) & the long red onions (top right) were from four rows in another bed.
This is why I like to grow onions from seed.
There will now be no more onion-themed posts until 2026.
#Allotment 🌱

Just Reach Over then.

Reach next.

And everyone rising to the bait.

There’s a kind of “Labour declares war on Jeremy Corbyn” subtext, and Jezza has fallen for it, meanwhile people are still getting worked up and clogging up the #allotmentlife feed, hence the repost.

The amazing thing is surely that grown ups have fallen for this story manufactured to cause division and are even now still getting wound up about it, there's been no declaration of war apart the one the right wing press made against us all and that one happened quite a while ago.
#Allotment

File under "Don't believe everything billionaires tell you".

The amazing thing is surely that grown ups have fallen for this story manufactured to cause division and are even now still getting wound up about it, there's been no declaration of war apart the one the right wing press made against us all and that one happened quite a while ago.
#Allotment

Never, you mean labour might not have “declared war on allotments” and they might just be trying to cause division?

Indoors in mods to keep them safe from the first leaf miner hatch in April.

Early April, they just grow like crazy.

You can put plants out in May after the first leaf miner hatch, then harvest from late July, there are other varieties you can use, but I like these long ones best because they’re so easy to prepare.

Thanks, the great thing about these long leeks is that they’re never dirty inside, so really quick to prepare.

A couple of long skinny leeks being held above a bed of long skinny leeks, rudbeckia in the background.

I harvested the first of our Bulgarian Giant early leeks, they're a bit small and later than usual because of seed compost issues.
I like to grow early leeks, it's a good way of getting some harvested before the allium leaf miner hatch in September. #Allotment 🌱

It really wasn't loud enough, I was sitting quite close but I missed most of what Katherine Priddy was singing.

It shouldn't be an age thing, there are plenty around me that dug up old plants from the previous allotment site and moved them over five years ago and they're doing fine (with the same pollinators, worse soil, less water and no feeding), it has to be something else.