Should I feed Onions

[roitelet]

I sowed onions last autum and so far they seem fine. They are planted out at 6 inch spacings in rows 1ft apart and are about the size of a good spring onion.

The question is, should I give them a feed to kick start them? If so when and what should I use and how much?

I have lots of super compost thanks to the Compost King and loads of wood ash plus of course the usual organic feeds, dried blood, fish meal and bonemeal as well as a general purpose Organic fertilizer.

[supersprout]

I give them a feed in Spring, once the soil is warming up - April or May - then that's it for the year. But if I have any wood ash, I'll sprinkle it on whenever I have it - onions get first dibs! One of the regulars pointed out that you don't want to feed with nitrogen later in the year, you want roots, not leaves - if you feed them with nitrogen you're encouraging leaves to grow at the expense of roots. I follow his advice, and my onions do well, so will continue unless other Grapes suggest this is hooey

[pigletwillie]

Onions put on leaf growth until the longest day of summer at which point they are triggered to start bulbing up. It figures that the more leaf growth you have in place before then, the better equiped they will be to give a good sized bulb.

I dont feed onions per say but feed the soil before the crop goes in. I totally agree with SS about woodash. My trip to the lottie this afternoon includes emptying our woodash bucket all over the garlic and overwintering onions, wind permitting.

[roitelet]

Thanks for the advice PW and SS. I nipped out quick before the rain and applied the wood ash

[burnie]

Cor , you're early,wish we could do that in the frozen north,seeds sown now and sets go in march time if I'm lucky.It won't affect you ,but I see in the magazine that a shortage is predicted here,glad I've still some sturon's.

[supersprout]

Thanks for the advice PW and SS. I nipped out quick before the rain and applied the wood ash

Deeply satisfying to seize the moment ain't it roitelet, all that goodness will be dripping down towards the roots now!
One of our Italian regulars is great at that, you never see him arrive on a rainy day or mistake dark clouds for signs of rain, he always knows when the first and last frost are likely so I keep a close eye on him! Sorry, drifted away from onions there