Here at Growseed we wish to thank everyone who has bought garlic, shallots and onion sets from us previously, recently or in the future. We are changing how we dispatch all of these items.
What’s been happening with onions, garlic and shallots this year?
Traditional sowing times for the items we sell are the following:
Red Winter Onion Set: September – October.
Senshyu Yellow Onion Set: September – December
Snowball Onion Set: November
Winter Shallots: September – November
Spring Shallots: January – March
Sturon Onion Set: February – March
Red Karmen Onion Set: February – March
Garlic: September – March
However, these planting times have not really changed in recent years much like other gardening advice. Despite the fact the growing climate has changed.
Times are changing
Starting this year (2021) we have taken action to hold back dispatch for specific products as the planting times are not suitable for the products. Unlike other retailers who just want to clear stock and ship it out to you the customer, we actually care about you, what you grow and the products. That’s what Growseed is all about.
Planting winter onion sets when the daytime temperature is mid 15c or higher gives little benefit to those onions, they do not like the heat that is why they are suited for over winter and often result in bolting, bulbs splitting, disease and a smaller crop / harvest.
Our winter in the UK has become even milder and wetter, planting Garlic this year has started to become close to a traditional wet spring, which can result in an earlier onset of rust much earlier in the growing season and can cause an entire loss of crop – as has been reported previously by a few customers.
The reality of gardening is that the climate has changed no matter what is shown on tv, what information is your planting booklets or when you can buy onion & shallot sets or garlic from high street stores, it is far too early.
We believe in our product and truly want the best results for you the gardener. We know the climate will change depending on location and where you live in the UK but over the last 5 years I cannot recall a single time we had a decent ground frost let alone a cold October.
Those of you in isolated conditions where you do get heavier frosts and colder weather, we will do our best to help you out and get stock delivered to you in a timely manner!
Planting in the current conditions in our opinion is making winter onion sets obsolete. There hardly seems little point – when spring is just around the corner.
Trails are well underway here at Growseed to find either a F1 hybrid set or another onion which we are testing from the USA and other countries to see if it will tolerate our new growing conditions a little easier.
Our sowing and harvesting information is slowly being updated to reflect this.
We have done our best to inform our customers of the recent changes coming into effect, however based on the weather so far this year we are committed to this change moving forward.
Currently we are advising our customers of the following:
Garlic Planting: late October – November onwards.
Senshyu Yellow: Mid October onwards.
Red Winter: November.
Winter Shallots: Late October – November.
Spring Shallots: February – April
Sturon: March – early May
Red Karmen: March – late April.
Over the coming months we will slowly be adapting all of our products to a new sowing and harvesting schedule. The weather has and will change and so does gardening and the information that comes with it.
We hope to lead the way and help you establish a better crop and a more productive & successful growing season.