TAKE THE HEALTHY OPTION FOR AUTUMN PLANTING
Keep healthy by growning your own onions
By Alan Titchmarsh
DOCTORS say that onions, garlic and shallots are good for us.
They are packed with healthy phyto-chemicals that are reckoned to lower blood pressure, and reduce risks of heart disease and cancer.
Growing your own is a great way to make sure you can really tuck in but when you are short of space the most useful varieties to grow are the ones that you plant in autumn, since they grow through the winter when the ground would otherwise be left empty.
You will be eating them when fresh-season supplies are at their most expensive in the shops. So stock up on planting sets, which you will find in garden centres now.
Over-wintering onion sets should be put in this month; a 200g pack contains roughly 50 sets, which – spaced 4in apart – is enough to plant two 8ft-long rows. You’ll find several varieties. Radar and Senshyu Yellow mature in June (though you can start using them in May, while the foliage is still green). For mild red onions to use raw in salads, grow Electric which is ready from late June.
Shallots are traditionally planted in early spring but when you want the long narrow gourmet “banana” type, it pays to plant in October since they need a longer growing season. Several kinds are available as sets, including Jermor, Eschalot Grise and Griselle. You will get approximately 15 bulbs from 400g, which is enough for a 10ft row. Plant them 8in apart.
The really high-value allium to grow is garlic. Large top-quality heads can cost £1 or so each in the shops, and more if it a coloured variety or “wet garlic” which is sold in early summer before the skin has dried out.
Plant the cloves 4in apart with the rows just wide enough to run a hoe through and you will pack lots into a tiny space. But since they are later to take root than onions or shallots there is no point planting them until November – don’t wait for spring or you’ll have a far smaller crop. Several named varieties are available – Solent Wight is the best all rounder for growing in the UK and is ready in July. Purple Wight has pretty purple-streaked skins and is ready several weeks earlier, from mid June.
Elephant garlic isn’t really garlic at all but a relative of leeks and it isn’t ready until August but the mild-flavoured giant cloves are brilliant for roasting whole or slicing into stir-fries.
Hardneck garlics, such as Sofia, Blanak and German Red‚ don’t store as well as other kinds, but they do produce long, thin flower stalks called “scapes” which can be cut early, before the flowers open, sliced and used before the garlic harvest. People often think the plants have run to seed so they throw them out thinking they have failed. Don’t‚ you will still have a crop of garlic bulbs as well.
Planting all overwintering alliums is a doddle but choose a sheltered spot with full sun and well-drained soil since the crop grows through the winter.
Clear away the remains of summer crops and fork the ground over to loosen it up. Then plant onion sets, shallots or garlic cloves with a trowel in the prepared ground leaving only the tips showing and water to settle the soil. Birds will often tug them out, out of sheer curiosity, but just push them back and its business as usual.
Bon appetit!
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