Advice for preparing onion bed please

[kris1960]

My grand plan is to make a large onion bed in old fruit area - deep dug and root free ready for sets in November. It has been overgrown for 20 years and consequently is covered in moss, nettles, old currant bushes, wandering raspberries and embedded branches.
I can see most of the ground now and have been keeping nettles down but roots not dug out yet. I need to dig out fruit bushes that are not doing well, rake off and burn moss and wood (saving ash for fertilising) and then commence digging.
Hoping that anyone who reads this will let me know if they think that I am doing this the right way or if my plan needs tweaking or refining or completely changing. I am also not sure what this soil will need for the hoped for onions and garlic.
I originally posted last bit of this in 'what I did today' but moved it in the hopes that more people will help me out with this- I have not the vaguest idea whether this will be a suitable place for onions though it will be a lovely sunny site when I have it cleared it.It is south facing on a slight incline.

[Bigmallly]

I have found that onion sets need no special treatment with the exception of keeping the bed weed free. I can't advise on feed etc as I don't feed them. Just keep an eye on them for a few weeks as they have a habit of pushing themselves out of the soil.

[Jay-ell]

A dusting of blood fish and bone should go down well, otherwise as BM said keeping down the competition is all I've been doing

[Snadger]

If you have old fruit bushes in and they aren't doing well the soil may be depleted similar to 'rose sickness' when taking old roses out.
Plenty of well rotted muck would help I reckon.

[kris1960]

If I put in fresh horse manure(with no straw) would I be able to plant sets in November? Should I use BFB and manure? You are right about my pigeons Big- if they weren't eating the brassicas they were pulling up the sets!
The bushes that I completely cut back last year seem to be very productive now but are growing off a small section off the stem mass. Am hoping to save bushes on the edge of the area.
The raspberries that I sorted and mulched at the north end of patch did brilliantly this year- hardly anything last year.
Many thanks for replies so far.

[fishpond]

You may want to have your soil analysed by a lab to give you an idea of what nutrients may be missing, and what you need to add.

[SusieG]

Hi Kris. I'm my limited knowledge and only had one growing season, I did find my onions grew well in well manured soil. Keep hoeing away any weeds that sneakily appear. And they pretty much sorted themselves out!

[SusieG]

Or you can buy those soil analyser kits to do it yourself ��

[SusieG]

Or you can buy those soil analyser kits to do it yourself 😃

[Penellype]

If your fruit bushes have done well for a feed then I would think more of the same would be all that is required. My policy would be to get rid of as much root as possible from the bed, give it a good dose of manure and leave it for a couple of months before planting the onion sets.

Personally I find onions a pain to weed and this year I mulched them with cocoashell (which you can't get any more, but any mulch would do). They seem to be doing fine and haven't been anything like as weedy as usual. I find a layer of fleece stops the birds from pulling out the sets and also gives the onions a head start in spring, but I do plant my sets in February, not in the autumn.

[kris1960]

Thanks all for advice so far - will try fleece until established. Weather and family commitments held me up yesterday.