Plant onions after onions grown?

[goodolpete]

Hi.
I want to sow some japanese onion seeds next month.
The only space I have is a patch where half gave a good
crop from onion sets earlier, and half had leeks which
went to seed. Does the team think that this is a good
idea?
Pete

[Aberdeenplotter]

Hi.
I want to sow some japanese onion seeds next month.
The only space I have is a patch where half gave a good
crop from onion sets earlier, and half had leeks which
went to seed. Does the team think that this is a good
idea?
Pete

your onions will grow but bear in mind two things :

1. Onions are gross feeders so the ground will need an injection of nutrients. FYM or granular fertiliser.

2. Growing a succession of the same crop in the same bed can lead to a build up of pests /diseases. That is why rotating crops is such a good idea.

Personally I would go ahead on this occasion but I wouldn't do it a third time.

[bario1]

I think you should sow NOW in modules and get them going - days are getting shorter at an alarming rate. Plant them out in mid October.

[Alison]

You best get in with sowing ASAP as I find the seeds best sowed in about mid August although the setts are much later. May be different where you live though.

[Two_Sheds]

I grow my onions in the same place every year. This year I had a terrific crop, the best ever, due to the prolonged warm weather & plenty of rain.

As to feeding: I don't use manure but I do mulch my soil continually with whatever's available, eg chopped up green manures esp.,comfrey, weeds, old plants

[Two_Sheds]

build up of pests /diseases.

I had white rot on my plot, which is why I decided to confine my onions to the one area. Caliente mustard has virtually got rid of it: I only had about half a dozen affected onions this year.

[Two_Sheds]

build up of pests /diseases.

I had white rot on my plot, which is why I decided to confine my onions to the one area. Caliente mustard has virtually got rid of it: I only had about half a dozen affected onions this year.

[KevinM67]

I had white rot on my plot, which is why I decided to confine my onions to the one area. Caliente mustard has virtually got rid of it: I only had about half a dozen affected onions this year.

I clicked on your link - then a further link you provided on dealing with white rot on the other thread.

The info on using '***** Fluid' disinfectant for cleaning the soil was intriguing.

[meteor]

I remember watching "Mr Smith's Vegetable Garden" on TV when I was a young lad and he recommended onions are best grown in the same bed for several years to build up fertility, however other experts and books disagreed. I have always practiced crop rotation but it is easy for me as I have oodles of space. As already mentioned on the thread onions are heavy feeders so I would dig deeply and incorporate plenty of compost or well rotted FYM, these are going to be in the ground for a long while.

[Two_Sheds]

he recommended onions are best grown in the same bed for several years to build up fertility

Growing a crop (any crop) doesn't build fertility, it reduces it, because you are taking away from the soil

Fertility comes from what you put back in the soil

[meteor]

I have always practiced crop rotation but it is easy for me as I have oodles of space. As already mentioned on the thread onions are heavy feeders so I would dig deeply and incorporate plenty of compost or well rotted FYM, these are going to be in the ground for a long while.

I was not nor never would advocate against crop rotation or fertilising one's soil. It is obvious that if you take nutritents without replenishment you will ruin your soil.I merely pointed out there was a cohort in the seventies who believed that heavily ferilisation before and after onion crops in the same bed for a number of years was acceptable. I didn't believe that then or now but as a once off it's not the end of the world

[Kristen]

Should it perhaps have been:

"he recommended onions are best grown in the same bed for several years AND to build up fertility"

?

[meteor]

I made a field trip through my attic this evening to search out the book I bought back in 1976 that accompanied the BBC TV series just to make sure I had not remembered it wrongly.
I quote directly from the section on onions
"Best grown in the same bed for several years to build up fertility. Soil must be dug deeply with compost or manure incorporated in the Autumn.Rake down and firm to a fine level bed before sowing or planting"
I never agreed with that as a teenager even though Geoffrey Smith was a gardening hero of mine in the seventies. I did know several old gardeners now since left us who followed this theory and sowed their sets in the same bed for upto 5 years in a row.

[Alison]

I made a field trip through my attic this evening to search out the book I bought back in 1976 that accompanied the BBC TV series just to make sure I had not remembered it wrongly.
I quote directly from the section on onions
"Best grown in the same bed for several years to build up fertility. Soil must be dug deeply with compost or manure incorporated in the Autumn.Rake down and firm to a fine level bed before sowing or planting"
I never agreed with that as a teenager even though Geoffrey Smith was a gardening hero of mine in the seventies. I did know several old gardeners now since left us who followed this theory and sowed their sets in the same bed for upto 5 years in a row.

So basically it's a poor use of English as growing the onions there simply can't build up the fertility, it's the addition of the compost / manure that does that. Very strange choice of phrase.

[Snadger]

Robinsons, the pervayor of show onion seeds and all manner of other show vegetable seeds have grown there onions in the same beds for donkeys years.
In my neck of the woods, pot leeks grown for show are grown in the same 'Leek trenches' every year.
Usually the soil is taken out for the winter though and all manner of secret ingedients added before being replaced in the spring.

I'm personally not an advocate of monoculture and have had problems on my plot with onion white rot (thankfully I've nearly got rid of it)
I like to think that my loose interpretation of crop rotation (never replacing like with like) has helped. I hate to think what my onion crop would have been if I'd grown them this year in last years white rot infested area.

If the bed can be kept free of disease, and mucked every year, the soil fertility and structure will improve...........but that also goes for any plot of land, with or without growing alliums on it every year!