Onion Sets in coke bottle cloches?

[jands]

I am going to be planting some onion sets in the next few days, I know they will need protecting from the birds, I have netting and could rig up some projection, however I am thinking of possibly using some empty coke or cider bottles, do you think these would be OK or will the sets get too hot?

Thanks

[jacob marley]

There is no need they are quite hardy unless your site is very exposed ....jacob

[di]

The birds won't eat them,they just see the little shoot poking out the ground & pull it out to find it's an onion & then leave it!
If you can keep an eye on them,just replant any they pull out.(they only usually pull up a couple of ours before realising the rest will be the same)
This year we did as one of our plotholders does & twisted off the top bit so that no appealing bits were on show,by the time they had started to shoot the roots had set so the birds couldn't pull them up anyway.

[Two_Sheds]

One cause of onions coming out of the ground is not birds, but compacted soil. Never push the sets into the ground, make a little hole and drop them in.

[jands]

So just to recap:

They dont need covering/protecting for birds etc
Plant them in a hole rather than puching them into the ground.
Plant them so that just the top of the set is sticking out of the ground?

[zazen999]

So just to recap:

They dont need covering/protecting for birds etc
Plant them in a hole rather than puching them into the ground.
Plant them so that just the top of the set is sticking out of the ground?

Yes

I'm not convinced that it is birds that push them out - it seems to be the roots that grow that push themselves out of the ground as two_sheds says, because the soil underneath is compacted.

[Two_Sheds]

I'm not convinced that it is birds that push them out - it seems to be the roots that grow that push themselves out of the ground as two_sheds says, because the soil underneath is compacted.

They do it if you plant them in modules too firmly as well. No birds to blame there

[jands]

Yes

I'm not convinced that it is birds that push them out - it seems to be the roots that grow that push themselves out of the ground as two_sheds says, because the soil underneath is compacted.

Thanks for all the help, I will get them in over the weekend,

[zazen999]

They do it if you plant them in modules too firmly as well. No birds to blame there

I know, that's how I worked it out

I've got my home made sets in modules already - for overwintering in the greenhouse.

[Scottishnewbie]

zazen, what do you mean by "home made sets" please?

[zazen999]

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ets_37163.html

I had a load of onions from seed that weren't doing much in the ground, so I dug them up, dried them back, topped and tailed them and left them for a few weeks; they are being grown in the greenhouse in modules over winter; to go into the lottie next spring after the frost date.

I'm also doing some like it says in the linkie.