Newbie... Assistance required.

[nooby]

Hi,

I am new to growing my own veg and decided that I wanted to grow some of my favourite veggies in pots and a raised bed... Everything looks lovely and I have already enjoyed my own new potatoes and lettuces and salads. I have a question or 2 and wondered if someone could give me some advice.

I planted some onions from sets in my bed and they all the stems look lush but absolutely huge! I mean some of them are at least a metre. The thing is that they seem to have fallen over in the soil and some of them (not all) are almost horizontal. Also I dug one (impatient I know) and they are just massive spring onions. My question is... Do I move the onions a bit and pack some earth around them to straighten them out? Do I bend over the tops as they are just huge? And will they actually globe out?

Also I have some courgettes and they look lovely and healthy bar a few little munch chunks here and there on the leaves and I woke this morning to find massive yellow flowers but there doesnt seem to me any small fruits.... Maybe one or two... Is this normal? They are in large troughs...

Any help would be great... I do have some other questions but I thought I would refrain from bombarding everyone initially

[womble]

Your courgettes will produce fruits, have patience, it will happen, probably you have male flowers first.

Have your onions bolted, ie are they about to flower?

[Bigmallly]

I pulled a load of what I thought were onions yesterday & like yours were like giant spring onions with no bulb on the bottom. I cleaned them up, they look like leeks & am gonna blitz them into a soup.

[Bigmallly]

PS Welcome to the vine nooby.

[nooby]

Thanks for the welcome...

Womble... I dont think they are bolting... there are no signs of flowering... Not at all just huge proud, thick stems...

[womble]

I think too much fertiliser can cause too much top growth and too little bulb growth for onions.
I don't fertilise mine at all after the initial getting the bed ready.

[Bountyhunter]

I have onions and leeks etc growing at the moment and i have kept all mine upright and in order. My red onions have has the little flower things developing, i have picked these off because i think that is the flower and not good. The red onions have fat stems and a bulb forming. They seem more advanced than the other onions. I have posted up some pics in my intro thread if you want to have a look. They are all in a raised veg garden. Some of the onion stems are bolt upright and others have flopped. I think when the stems start to look yellow then you pull them.

Good luck nooby. When you see my pics it will look like i know what i am doing but i am still learning lol. I joined here yesterday, welcome to my new home lol

[chris]

Mine are next to a fence (onion) - and they're leaning, some are almost horizontal over the soil then growing up... Should have thoughta bout that! Bad placement for that bed.. next year i'll grow some low level crops in it - shame as it's quite a large bed. No bulbing up on mine yet either.

[Two_Sheds]

I planted some onions from sets in my bed and they all ... are at least a metre.

When did you plant them?
My autumn sown sets are only just starting to bulk out; the spring plantings will be a little while longer.

They shouldn't be a metre tall: are they in a shady patch? It sounds like they're reaching for the light

[nooby]

Hi Two Sheds,

Thanks for your reply and its interesting... I planted them in March so spring and to be honest they a not in a particularly shady area. There is a slight overhang from a bush nearby but they get plenty of light.... It does kind of look like they are shooting for the sky though... is there anything I can do?

I wasnt really expecting them to be ready yet anyway but they have very strong looking necks and my worry was the size of the stems.

Thaks again