Distorted/twisted onion leaves! - What's caused this/ what to do??

[colonel]

Hi there,

I noticed yesterday that a few of my onions have got twisted/ distorted leaves. I think it's just the white onions but maybe a couple of red onions are the same. They were planted as sets.

I've uploaded a few photos for you to check them out (sorry for the poor quality - had to compress to upload and they would only upload as attatchments!)

If anyone knows what has caused this then please could you let me know. I would also be gratfeful of any advice about what to do with these onions. Should I dig them up? Will it affect the whole crop if left unchecked? or ist it already too late for my poor onions?

Thanks in advice for any advice guys, any tips are very much appreciated.

Happy gardening and stay safe

[Nicos]

Allium leaf miner?

If it is, this might be useful....

https://www.which.co.uk/documents/pd...ner-231881.pdf

[colonel]

Yeah, I've just done a bit of research and thought it could be this.

Any idea about how to deal with the affected plants? And how to save the others?

[Nicos]

I've just added a link to my previous post.

I've no experience of it with onions so can't really suggest what to do I'm afraid.

We have it in our leeks and have to take the affected ones early.

My guess would be to pull them before they spread?.... hopfefully someone else can give you the wisdom of their experience....

[colonel]

Thanks for the link, useful info.

Think I will pull them up later today, unless someone else replies with more onion wisdom...

[Nicos]

Seems such a waste...

[Mark_Riga]

The leaflet above lists april/may and oct/nov. as the main times it is active. So I would think it unlikely you will get any more onions affected.If it was me, I would leave them as they have quite a lot of green leaf so could produce a reasonable bulb still. They would likely best be used first. If you pulled them up now, most of the onion, including leaves, should still be edible.

I'm gowing leeks so will cover them from Sept. to end Nov. with fleece - if I remember.

[Mr Bones]

Sorry Colonel, it does look like ALM, we've had it for a few years now. Sometimes the onion will grow out of the damage but usually it's done for or gives it an unpleasant gassy flavour and yellow flesh.
Your future crops of leeks and onions will need to be grown under Enviromesh Ultrafine or similar, something with a 0.6mm mesh, the ALM adult can get through 0.8mm. Fleece works but because it'll be deployed for a few months it needs to be the robust stuff.
Garlic and elephant garlic are also attacked but survive, the maggots eat the parts of the bulb that become papers. When you come to split the cloves however there will be plenty of brown pupae.
When the onions are at the stage yours are the maggots can often be found by stripping down through the layers. The first thing you'll probably find is the yellow track left as they eat down towards the roots.

It's a pain having to grow under protective mesh but can be made lots easier by either top dressing your bed with an inch of compost prior to planting or carefully work compost between the plants/sets afterwards, it stops most weed seeds from germinating. This year I only lifted the mesh from my maincrop onions once and pulled six weeds, three of which were self-set sunflowers.

[colonel]

Thanks guys, I haven't had chance to pull any up yet so think I will leave most of them as you suggest. Will pull a couple today and see what they are like with tonights tea.

your replies are much appreciated guys, hopefully the remaining onions will grow on healthily and form some nice bulbs