📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Fall Planting Onion Sets
- 🧅 Size Matters for Fall Planting: A great discussion on planting overwintering onion sets (севок). Pro Tip: For fall planting, it’s always best to use the absolute smallest onion sets (under 1 cm / 0.4 inches in diameter). Larger sets are much more likely to bolt (go to seed) the following spring.
- 🇳🇱 Dutch Onion Sets Warning: Several growers report highly unusual issues with imported Dutch onion sets meant for fall planting. Instead of forming large bulbs, they either bolted or just grew into slightly larger, hard little sets.
- 🧪 Chemical Treatment: Growers suspect that some commercial imported sets are heavily treated with sprouting inhibitors for prolonged storage, which prevents them from breaking dormancy and bulbing up properly in the garden.
- 🧬 Hybrid Seed Saving: Another theory for poor onion storage life is the modern practice of saving seeds from F1 hybrids, which may yield decent greens but results in bulbs that rot quickly in storage.
Good morning EVERYONE!!! We have a sunny and golden morning here! What a beautiful autumn we are having this year!
I got my fall onion sets in the ground yesterday. Everything worked out perfectly. It rained for two days before that, so the soil is moderately moist—exactly what the onions need right now. I planted them slightly deeper than I do in the spring. Covered the bed immediately with dry, cut flower stems, not so much for warmth, but to keep the neighborhood cats out of the freshly dug dirt.
Good morning!
Lyuda, I also got my onion sets planted yesterday, deeper than in the spring. We also had rains, but now it’s sunny. I prepped the bed last weekend, just like you. I also had a bed prepped for raspberries and honeyberries from a co-op order, so I got those planted too.
My regular and named begonias are still blooming, as well as the tall dahlias (and the medium/short ones in a separate bed). I cut some dahlias for a vase. It’s such a rare treat for us this late in the year.
Roses are still blooming, and the last of the phlox are fading. The peony foliage has partially changed color, but is still partially green.
I’ll add that I planted the ‘Sturon’ onion sets (Netherlands). They turned out to be quite large. The other varieties, ‘Stuttgarter’ and ‘Senshyu’, were tiny, so I set them aside. I’m not an expert on onions; I just do everything by intuition.
Quote from gala7496:
…The other varieties, ‘Stuttgarter’ and ‘Senshyu’, were tiny, so I set them aside.
Galya, for fall planting, it’s actually best to plant the absolutely smallest ones! Under 1 cm (0.4 inches) in diameter. But sellers offer all kinds of sizes. At one place, a vendor told me that imported Dutch onions are chemically treated against bolting (going to seed), so you don’t need to be afraid of planting larger sets. I honestly don’t know whether to believe them or not.
Quote from LavandaN:
Galya, for fall planting, it’s actually best to plant the absolutely smallest ones!
Natasha, thank you!
It looks like I’ll have to prep another bed. I was actually upset when I saw the tiny onions because I was really counting on the ‘Senshyu’ (from Japanese breeders). I’ll go ahead and plant them now.
Small onion sets are definitely better; they won’t bolt and send up flower stalks. Well, at least that’s what I’ve always thought or read somewhere. They might dry out a bit over the winter, but they will grow. I always take the tiniest sets that grew over the summer and plant them back out before winter. Sometimes they yield a really decent crop. My failures usually happen because I leave the dacha in mid-September, but even then, I’ve had good onions grow from tiny sets.
Looking at all of you, I decided to plant fall onion sets too—my first time trying an overwintering planting! I bought ‘Radar’ and ‘Stuttgarter’ at the market. Radar was a normal size, but Stuttgarter was pure tiny pebbles. The seller told me it’s the exact perfect size for right now. I planted both; we’ll see what comes up in the spring. I plan to cover the bed with leaf mulch.
Quote from gala7496:
My regular and named begonias are still blooming… Roses are still blooming, and the last of the phlox are fading.
Galya, how nice that you still have things to delight the eye. Here in the Moscow region, everything got hit by frost, and the Michaelmas daisies are running late this year, just barely opening their buds. The summer was hot, the autumn was rapid, and everything faded away so fast.
Quote from LavandaN:
…I honestly don’t know whether to believe them or not.
Do NOT believe them. I’m telling you this as someone who works directly with Dutch suppliers. I don’t know what on earth they treated them with last spring, but it was the first time in my entire life that my planted onion sets just grew into slightly larger onion sets (instead of proper bulbs). I had planted some dirt-cheap, no-name sets of unknown origin before winter, and they grew beautifully.
Meanwhile, half of the Dutch ones bolted, and the other half grew into hard little balls you could load into a musket. I talk to the producers, but they always try to sugarcoat things. 🙄
Quote from galka68:
…my planted onion sets just grew into slightly larger onion sets
My aunt had an entire bed of onion sets this year that only gave her greens. The bulbs never formed. They were sets from a seed store, the same Dutch imports meant for fall planting. Only one specific variety acted this way. Good thing she had several beds and the rest of the onions grew normally.
The topic of onions, especially their storage life, has been very relevant for everyone lately!! Regardless of the seed producer, the quality of the sets, or the planting dates—my onions just do not store well anymore.
I read an article about the achievements of our modern Russian seed breeders (I took note of some super cabbage varieties!!!), and one of the reasons mentioned for poor storage was the practice of saving seeds from F1 onion hybrids. In that case, the yield might be decent, but they absolutely will not store through the winter.
Last season I bought sets not from Leroy Merlin (a big box store), but from local sellers here. The harvest was nonexistent, just tiny pebbles. But to be fair, the local shallot families performed very poorly too!
The inventiveness of salespeople is off the charts. That’s exactly what I suspected. I’m so glad we discussed this on the forum. Thanks, Galya, you completely resolved my doubts.
I had the exact same story this year—out of the spring-planted sets bought in a chain store (2 varieties), both gave great greens and then just turned into sets that were slightly larger than what I planted. The care was normal, same as always, but this result is a first for me. I just left them in the garden bed until next year (treating it like a fall planting). 😂
Also, Happy Women’s Happiness Day, ladies! Health and happiness to you all, always and in everything!!!
Good evening. We just got back from the dacha, did a little work. I took a photo of the leeks; this is how we leave them in the garden bed until spring.
Girls, I think they treated the onions so heavily for storage longevity that the bulbs literally couldn’t wake up from dormancy. Right now, one of my suppliers has no onion sets left because so many rotted, and the other one is shipping God knows what.
Flower bulbs have been arriving with a huge amount of defects and rot as well.
