Gardening: Cuttings: The onion field

BOXING DAY is the traditional time to sow seed of show onions, the monsters that loom like hand grenades on the benches of late summer horticultural shows. The world record is 11lb 8oz for a single onion, and Unwins, the seed merchants, is offering a pounds 2,000 prize to anyone who can beat that weight with an onion grown from its seed strain 'Unwins Exhibition' ( pounds 1.35 a packet). You need to sow early in gentle heat to give prize onions the maximum amount of time to put on weight. Seed and full details of the competition and its rules are available from Unwins, Histon, Cambridge CB4 4LE (0223 236236).