Spring Onions in Flower Buckets.

As I have white rot on both allotments I'm seriously thinking about growing onions in cut down flower buckets over winter, question is for spring onions what minimum depth of container would be best?

I've made a mock up out of a based of square flower bucket from another creative project that I had made. I have a few buckets where the tops have split or become brittle. But I can cut them down to any height really.

The bottom of the handle hole in the side is 100mm from the bottom.

The two holes on all sides at about 10mm up from the bottom so the bucket can hold some water in the bottom to encourage the roots to go down and find the moisture.

The flower buckets measure 240 x 220mm

So if spaced at 20mm centres in both directions

240 / 20 = 12 spaces = 11 seeds

220 / 20 = 11 spaces = 10 seeds

11 x 10 = 110 onions

There are about 10 onions in a bunch bought at the supermarket so that's 11 bunches which would last us about 22 days at our average rate of consumption, so that a bucket needs to be sown every three to four weeks







I got to thinking about how to make the setting out the seeds easier and decided to make a Jig. So I cut a bucket to the same size as the one above and marked out the sowing pattern on the bottom of the bucket.



Then I found my trusty soldering iron, warmed it up and then made the holes in the base of the bucket with it.

The template will be used to flatten the compost in the growing flower bucket and to create holes with a dibber for sowing the onion seeds.

I can then sow the seeds, lightly cover over and hopefully job done. Looking at the back of the seed packs I have, most spring onions can be sown until the end on June, but three varieties can be sown in August so I will try all three Lilia, Performer and Winter Hardy White Lisbon in this bucket and then sow another in three weeks time.