watering/feeding onions and garlic?

[Emmylou]

Hello! I planted onion sets and garlic in the autumn, all growing nicely!
How much water should they have and should I feed them with anything?
Thanks in advance!

[zazen999]

Hi Emmy.

I water the ones in my raised bed, as for some reason one raised bed dries out more than the others [will mix some clay in with it once the onions are up].....but the ones in the other beds and the ground only get watered if it is particularly dry for a few days. They say to stop watering a few weeks before you harvest them however, as autumn planted sets aren't for storage, just for direct eating, I'd just make sure they don't dry out.

Another trick with onions is to 'finger' them about now, which basically means to loosen the soil around them to allow them to take up the spring rain and start swelling.

Garlic, should be planted alot deeper and probably won't need watering at all - again unless we get a drought. Which we don't often get here in the Midlands.

Feeding, you probably don't have to, but i found 'growing success onion and root veg fertiliser' which is organic, and sprinkle that round mine, every now and then.

[Emmylou]

Ok thanks for that info. Why can't autumn set onions be stored?? I was hoping to keep them! EEk ! I don't want to have to eat all I've set! I won't have any friends left!

[rana]

Once autumn planted onions have been pulled they will keep for 3 months or so as long as you keep them dry. I am sure the flavour improves with keeping and they also stop oozing that white sap when cut. I never water onions (and it's pretty dry here) as I have heard too much water before harvesting can drive them to flower.

[bluemoon]

I never feed or water them either, though in the dim and distant past when we had those things called 'summers' I'd give them a bit of water if they started to wilt.