Water the onion bed.

[Wren]

The onion sets we planted last autumn are showing their necks now and i recently read that you should never let the onion bed dry out.
As we have had no real rain for a couple weeks in the south of England my partner gave the onions a good water last night and i am sure they have almost doubled in size over night!!!
So it looks like this is the time to make sure them autumn planted onion sets don't go short of water as they start to put some meat on .

Wren

[zazen999]

Hi
I've got a load of onions on the go, all over the place. Alot were sets but I grew a load from seed. They are starting to bulk up and they are looking really good. My favourites are the ones that were grown from seed, and planted out in 3s, so they are pushing themselves apart and they just look too good to ever pull up.

[SarzWix]

Same here Wren, my autumn onions are starting to bulb up now, so I put 4 watering cans full over them last night. It's hard work though, as my water butts are dry now too so having to haul the cans up & down the site path to the communal water tanks

[Mrs Dobby]

Ours are bulbing up nicely too! Looks like it could be a good year for onions this year, not so many gone to seed as did last year either!

[Alice]

I always keep onions well watered. They don't seem to be able to get enough.

[Snadger]

I'm probably wrong here but I NEVER water onions. Onions are naturally shallow rooted and once you start watering them you will need to do it regularily as the roots will make a matt near the surface. If they don't get regular watering from then on they will suffer.
On our site, water is a precious commodity and as the water is metered,(entailing higher costs!) anyone not doing there bit to save water are castigated!

My logic is that my onion beds are well mucked so there is plenty of organic matter to hold moisture.

By not watering, the roots will delve deeper and look after themselves. Seems to be working up til now as my Japs are bigger than golf balls and look quite healthy.

And the moral of the story is.......... GROW EM ARD!

[Paulottie]

As a rule I agree with you Snadger. An old boy told me when I first started you shouldn't water crops (only seedbeds) as the root runs will go deeper in search of supplies. I believe in the grow em hard theory. If you are going to water -don't tease them- scratch up the surface to allow penetration and really soak them. Also just splashing it about a bit makes the weeds grow! Trenches, reservoirs and mulches are better tools for thirsty crops.

It may not have rained in the south for a couple of months but frankly it didn't stop for a year before that! The ground is still wet below. Anyhow It certainly rained last night!

However, that said, there are a few exceptions I've found: Some crops can tend to split if there is a sudden rainy period..in particular carrots and cabbages. Onions when they are swelling do need a fair amount of water, and can occasionally bolt if rain comes after a prolonged drought. And celeriac is impossible to give too much water and will not swell without.

[SMS6]

I noticed some of my onions have what look like flower heads appearing but as yet I can't see that they've begun to fill out any.

Do I have a problem? Are they not going to be any good?

[Farmer_Gyles]

not watering is a nice idea - but i don't want everything bolting or dying off, especially after the time and effort i've put in so far, and not had enough compost / manure to dig in (or the time to dig it in) so i've got a large sprinkler that covers the whole veggie patch - and everything gets a very good soaking if no rain for 2 or 3 days - and all is growing really well at the mo .....

[Two_Sheds]

If you don't believe Snadger, Paulottie and me about growing hard, look at this instead:

From the BBC: "Weed (onions) regularly and water sparingly"

From the RHS: "Mulching the soil will help conserve soil moisture and keep down weeds. Stop watering and feeding once the onions have swollen"

and another: "water the onion plants if the weather is dry... but not otherwise."

[gojiberry]

My seed sown onions are doing far better than the sets. One lot of sets is only just showing signs of growing, don't think I will be getting a bumper crop from them. Some of the seed sown ones are already showing signs of a decent bulb. I try not to water but if I do it is a good drenching.

Ian