More pathetic spring onions

[Marb67]

Well, I am growing new seed of Ishikura and white Lisbon spring onions sown 20th March. So far they have shown a pathetic germination, very very slow growth, with some now wilting. They havent been over/underwatered so I just don't seem to be able to grow these seemingly easy crops. Year after year after years its the same poor yields. The only onions that do well in my garden are Welsh onions. The compost is seed and cutting from Bathgate in clean pots.

[greenishfing]

Marb, I have every sympathy as, although I can grow ordinary onions, Spring onions seem to do nothing for me and take even longer to grow than ordinary onions. I have now given up and one of my neighbours who grows them does swaps with me for cucumbers or courgettes.

Spring onions and carrots are just not worth the time and effort for me!

[ameno]

Onion seeds often have poor germination as they don't live long. Even if you buy them fresh, you never know how long the suppliers have kept them. The lower of the two pots was probably just a bad batch of seeds, that's all.

As for slow growth, that top pot only looks slightly behind mine, which were sown at a similar time to yours, in a seed tray. Mine are probably ready to split up and plant out now. I'd leave yours another week or two, but they should still be fine in the long run.
Onions of all types do grow very slowly to start with (there's a reason that people who grow normal onions from seed start them of in January), taking a long time to germinate and a long time to put on much growth at the seedling stage. Then once they reach a certain size they really take off.

[Jungle Jane]

Seed & cutting compost is very low nutrient have you got mpc? or feed them some liquid fertiliser? The top pot can be potted on,once they’re potted on/planted out they grow bigger

[annie8]

I also find spring onions hard to grow from seed so I tend to buy from the garden centre as modules and they seem to do better.

[Marb67]

Well, months on and the spring onions planted out that have had some blood fish and bone around them and seem to be getting smaller, thin and wispy. I plant them in groups so they will push each other outwards as they supposedly swell. Absolutely cannot seem to grow them at all as every years its the same. many don't even germinate from new seed. Some have even completely disappeared!

[Snoop Puss]

Mine aren't that great either, Marb. Only suggestion I have is that perhaps it's a bit dark for them in that spot, though maybe it's just the effect of the photo.

[Jungle Jane]

They look edible tho Marb,don’t worry what they look like when they’re chopped up nobody knows

[Snoop Puss]

They look edible tho Marb,don’t worry what they look like when they’re chopped up nobody knows

Brilliant! I must remember this.

[ameno]

Mine aren't that great either, Marb. Only suggestion I have is that perhaps it's a bit dark for them in that spot, though maybe it's just the effect of the photo.

I'd agree with this; they look like they're not getting enough light there.
They do also look like they are planted in too large a bunch. You can plant spring onions in clumps and have them push each other apart, but there is a limit. You shouldn't have more than 4-5 plants to a clump, really, or their growth will suffer. And each clump should then be 4 inches or so apart (both from each other and other plants, so that beetroot there is probably too close, as well).

[Marb67]

But I have a very small space to grow and can't afford the luxury of spacing them out sadly.

[ameno]

Then I'm afraid you might just have to give up on growing certain crops, or accept that they are simply going to be a bit weedy (although still edible). Either that or try and make some more space, maybe some more large containers or something.

[peanut]

But I have a very small space to grow and can't afford the luxury of spacing them out sadly.

Can you go vertical? Raising pots up off the ground means you can get more in a space than if you just had them all next to each other on the floor. Try standing some on a few brick or on upside down pots or stand on tables or other old and odd bits of furniture.. Or attach pots to walls, fences, even drainpipes! Things like spring onions can be grown in small pots, I've used as small as 20cm pots and they've done fine.

Where there's a will there's a way! Don't give up.

[Marb67]

I feel like giving up quite frankly but other things come into play too. Getting drizzly rain all the time now so just waiting for the blight to get my toms and finish off another season. Leaf miner and thrips are also ravaging everything as per usual.

[Penellype]

Something I tried back in 2015 before I got my allotment. The pots used are 2 litres and I grew strawberries and salad leaves quite successfully this way, but it should also work for spring onions (which I don't eat).

Get a piece of rebar or a rough metal pole about 1/2 an inch diameter and push it into the ground. Push the first pot onto it through one of the holes around the edge. The pot will be offset from the pole. Fill with compost or soil then push the 2nd pot onto the pole and turn it so that it is offset in the opposite direction to the first. Carry on adding pots until you run out of either pots or pole. You can then plant your plants into the pots:



They do require regular watering as there is nothing to stop the water running out of the bottoms of the pots.