1/1/26 - Happy New Year Onions

Good day to you, and a Happy New Year.  The festive break and the turn over from one year to another means a clean slate and the start of seed sowing for 2026.  And it's off to a slow start.  It is many a growers tradition to sow their onion seeds on boxing day.  A chance to get out the house and get some fresh air and peace and quiet too maybe?  For me though, I'm happy to wait a little bit longer and start my sowing in the new year.

Our 2025 onion harvest was excellent.  We still have a load to get through, but some of them are also on the turn in the last sack.  Given the success of the 2025 varieties, for 2026, we're sticking with Bedfordshire Champion.  We still have Ailsa Craig seed too, but I'll be holding onto those and will be sticking with the one variety of bulbed onion if we can help it.

On the plan, we have space for around 60 bulbs, so I've dusted off the Garland Super 7 window sill propagator and taken 2 of the 1/4 size seed trays to get things going.  I should get plenty of seedlings from those two alone.  Maybe, just maybe though, a little later in the month I may give in and sow a tray of Ailsa Craig too...  I can never make my mind up!

Elsewhere, all else has been quiet over recent days.  I don't plan on going back to the plot again until the weekend.  We are due for some icy weather in the coming days so there's not going to be much to do on the ground.  Maybe I'll start fettling with the water harvesting on the IBC tank?  I've bought a filter attachment for it to stop any rubbish falling into the tank, so it will give me chance to re-design the top and hopefully make it a bit more efficient.