I am trying some October planted onions for an early crop next June. A proportion I am going to plant in a cold but airy greenhouse for a bit of protection. I intend picking these before I plant next years tomatoes but we will see.

Varieties Considered

Onion Troy for round bulbs and good skin quality form Unwins. They also offer Shallots called Yellow Moon but they needed to be planted by September.

Senshyu the original ‘Japanese overwintered’ variety which has proven successful for many years. Semi flat, more yellow/brown skinned for late June maturity.

Shakespeare a smaller brown skinned variety of onions and others  from Thompson & Morgan .

In the end I have opted for Electric a red skinned Onion from De Ree a supplier to Focus. They claim to be planted through November so I shouldn’t be too late if I get cracking now.

Feed back – not a great success – poor crop but to be fair they got little attention.
The results outside were no better but I blame the Yorkshire weather this winter. I am sticking to normal onion growing this year but am trying varieties with different characteristic to vary cropping.