Tuesday 24th March 2009
If you thought our best-selling Stuttgarter Giant couldn't get any better, think again. Marshalls Stuttgarter Stanfield consistently outperformed other onions in our trials. The versatile onion is one of most popular vegetables to grow in gardens and on allotments, especially spring sown ‘maincrop’ varieties that have a long storage life.
Stuttgarter Stanfield has a greatly-improved yellow skin quality, making it an excellent choice for the home gardener. It has a sweet, smooth and very mild taste, delicious for salads or cooking. The bulbs have a slightly flattened shape, excellent keeping qualities and are slow to bolt. £2.45 for 100 sets.
Sowing/growing
- A golden rule of onion planting is to choose a dry day. Plant onion sets 10cm (4in) apart in rows 10cm (8in) apart from mid-March to mid-April.
- Gently push the sets into soft, well-worked soil so that the tip is just showing and firm the soil around them.
- Water if the weather is dry and give an occasional feed with a general liquid fertiliser. A light feed of sulphate of potash in June will help ripen the bulbs ready for storage.
Why chose a set?
Sets are immature bulbs, which have the advantage of being easier to grow, less prone to disease, more tolerant of poor soil conditions and often escape onion fly attacks. Because they are already bulbs, they also mature earlier, not having to go through the initial growth and development phase of those grown from seed.
Tip!
Onions make great companion plants to carrots, cabbage, beetroot and courgette because of the 'masking effect' of their smell. Some gardeners claim that strawberries are less vulnerable to disease alongside onions.
Tip!
Stop tears when peeling an onion by chilling for 30 minutes or cutting the top off while leave the root on. The root has the largest amount of sulphuric compounds, which is what causes tears.
