First onions sown, sowing off the table again for now.

After a colder period, spring is once again just around the corner. Thanks to these favorable weather conditions and the good soil conditions, the first plots have even been sown sporadically already. Significant progress has also been made with the planting of onion sets. However, it is still early, and the soil was by no means suitable for good sowing everywhere. With the precipitation moving across the Netherlands and Belgium these days, sowing will not be able to resume until sometime next week at the earliest.

With the sowing of onions in the first week of March, the start is once again early, just as was the case last year. In the seasons prior, it remained wet for a longer period, and sowing started later. The clay soils look good, according to reports from the field, where there has been frost several times this winter.

Thanks to higher temperatures and a period of dry weather, the first fields were suitable for sowing. For instance, sowing already took place early this week on the heavy soil in the Oldambt region of Groningen. In recent years, this area has often been one of the first to start sowing onions. Sporadic plots have also been sown on the sandy soil in the east and southeast of the Netherlands; these are often the higher-lying grounds.

Sowing off the table again for the time being
In the southwest of the country, mainly onion sets have been planted, and very little has been sown yet. This is according to Peter Vroegindeweij, account manager at The Great and Slot in the southwest of the Netherlands. "Growers in this region mainly started planting onion sets, but that has now stopped due to the rainfall. Not many onions have been sown yet, only a few plots on sandy soil. Growers were ready to start sowing, but it barely dried out over the past few days. Given the weather forecast, that will not happen in the coming days either."

Although the weather was beautiful last week, the second half of March has not yet arrived, and temperatures could remain low in the coming period. For this reason, some growers consider it too early to sow anyway. Additionally, the soil looks very good from above, but the conditions underneath are still disappointing. This is the conclusion of Tom Langenberg, account manager at De Groot en Slot in the Noordoostpolder and the east of the Netherlands. "Only a few plots have been sown. The conditions were quite typical for sowing, but if you looked closely at the soil, it was still quite moist beneath the top layer."