1st September

Our onion crop this year is one of the best ones we have had.

One reason is variety; we were forced into changing variety for a couple of reasons.

Last year I was away to order the usual tried and tested onion variety Hytech, one we had been using for years, which was always successful, and did produce some onions the size of pumpkins, but they grew fantastic and loved our soil.

But the organic seed had failed, so there was no organic Hytech onion seed available in the thousands we need, sixty thousand.

Usually when this happens it is a straightforward process of phoning soil association, and explaining the problem, plus the reason we are needing to use the same variety.

And then you are given a derogation, which means you can order the same variety, but these seeds are non-chemically treated.

But last year it was a no to a derogation, which is a problem you need to then use a seed untested, seeds that might do perfect in another farmer’s field might not do so well in our soil conditions.

Unfortunately, the variety we used was not the best suited for our ground, and we had almost fifty percent of the crop shot, meaning they went to seed not the best, the joys of being organic.

This year yet again Hytech still was not available organically, again I could not get a derogation to use the tried and tested seed, no matter how much I explained that onions are a huge part of our crop, and we put onions in every net.

So, after a bit of research after last season’s onion disaster, I ordered a variety called Hylander, and these are growing amazingly well in our soil, actually better than Hytech.

They are very uniformed in size, zero bolding, and no onions the size of a small house, and they taste amazing.

Some veg just will not grow depending on your soil, we cannot grow parsnips or celeriac, I have tried I do not know how many times to grow them and never succeeded.

Whereas an organic grower in North Berwick has sandy soil, grows amazing crops of these,

So, we leave that to him, and buy them from him, and likewise we can grow crops that his soil just does not like.

So, if you are growing veg in your garden and have a failure, sometimes it might just be the weather, but it can also be the variety of seed, try different varieties of the same veg before giving up hope.