Red onion problem?

[fruit&vegvirgin]

I planted red onions, garlic and ordinary onions last autumn, all in the same bed, all as sets. the garlic and white onions seem fine - sturdy growth etc etc.
the red onions started off ok, with healthy looking darkish green leaves - but they now seem to have only 1 or 2 leaves per set, and some of these seem to be breaking off.

could it be birds having a go at them? or should I dig them up and see what is going on underground?

[Lesley Jay]

My red onions don't look very good either. I am putting it down to the weather. It would normally have started to warm up a long time ago.I am going to leave mine and see how they get on. If you think it might be the birds try and cover them with netting.

[SueA]

It could be birds or even slugs/snails chewing the leaves. I had a problem with shallots I planted last autumn, they seemed to be growing O.K. then the leaves on a few of them disappeared I investigated & found they were upside down- although I had them netted a cat had wriggled underneath , dug them up left 'a little message' & then covered them back up. I 've now covered them with a polythene cloche & fastened it down a bit tighter!

[Acorn]

I've got problems with my red onions too... As FVV I planted garlic, japanese white onions and red onions on the same bed last autumm and they all started off fine, but the red onions looked very sad for a while and eventually most of them died off... I now have a handful left out of 30 or so. The white onions and the garlic are looking strong, so I don't think the problem is in the soil. Could it be that the variety (Electric) is not cold resistant? But then again, they were autumm onions....

[Lesley Jay]

I had a fantastic crop of winter onions last year. I planted Radar and Electric so this winter I stuck with the same varieties. I do think that the very cold winter and cold early spring has got something to do with it. I wonder if we all bought our onion sets from the same place?

[fruit&vegvirgin]

oh well, at least its not just me then! I think I got mine from T&M, and also think they were 'electric'. am tempted to dig the worst one or two up and see if there is anything there.

[nick the grief]

I'd leave them F&V, once the weather warms up (about september ) they may spurt into action

[andrewo]

On the first allotment I was on, I was told to avoid red onions and they can be temperamental and you get a low produce to planting ratio - I have planted red onions since and have found that they are more susceptable to the damp and really hate too much rain (they rot) and simply avoid them now as they do seem prone to viruses in my soil.

[Nicos]

We plant red onion sets red baron) in the spring and if it is a very wet summer, just pull them a bit earlier and make sure they are well dried before storing. This year we are trying white onions for the first time.

[nick the grief]

I've planted 3 rows of Radar & 3 rows of Electric and so far only 5 plants have succumbed to the ravages of winter 3 red & 2 ordinary. I see what they are like when it come to harvest time

[andrewo]

I am going for Stuttgart this year, red just hate my soil, will be planting them beneath my outdoor toms and tagetes.

[SueA]

I have problems sometimes with red onions bolting as I don't usually buy heat-treated ones. I just pick them early if they start to bolt & put up with the small size of the onions as they do taste milder & nicer raw in salads than yellow onions.

[Elmo]

Well this is my first time growing red onions so fingers crossed in fact this is the first time I've grown onions from set I usually grow from seed, I hope they are all right they look pretty good at the moment.