Pathetic Onions (Again)

[Marb67]

Well, it's the same as last year, only slightly better. My red baron onion sets started promising with lush growth only to descend into utter withering doom. I planted in small clumps (like Charles Dowdey) so I could harvest as they grew to allow others to develop. However, they haven't even got to that stage despite planting out early enough, feeding with bfb (as recommended by Geoff hamilton) and sprayed with seaweed for a tonic. They have had plenty of sun so why have they just gone pathetic again ?

[Jay-ell]

No idea, mine are poor this year as well.

Did you harvest any spring onions from the clumps?

[roitelet]

They look better than mine. Could be lack of rain.

[Jay-ell]

Marb, did any of them bolt? I had quite a few of my reds bolting.

[Marb67]

Yes, some bolted but I took advice here and snipped off the flowering heads and gave some seaweed. They haven't gone short of water either.

[Chippy Minton]

Ours are doing that, all lying down. But the bulbs are still forming. The brown skinned ones are doing better than the reds though. We water thoroughly twice a week currently (normally not at all as we live in one of the wettest places!).

Although there's no scale it looks like you've got some reasonable bulbs down the right side of that photo. We need t remember that commercial growers grade their crops so they probably have a similar variation I size, they just have such a lot they can grade them.

[fon]

You can tell if they are still growing by feeling the neck, (just above the bulb where the green starts)

If its really soft then they are not growing anymore and should be pulled and dried, but if its firm, then leave them in there despite the sorry state of green vanishing.

Fon

[rary]

Mine went over in May when we had high winds but like Chippy Mintons they are still growing but possibly not as big as they should , but will still be a good crop

[muck lover]

An awful lot of my onions planted from sets went to seed. There were a few I had grown from seed that look ok but small. And my first attempt at growing shallots they have all thrown up flowers.
I’m blaming lack of rain.

[Bacchus]

I pulled the lot last weekend regardless of size. The crop was middling but none went to seed at least. White onions did better than red and those from seed were nearly as large as those from sets.

[Jay-ell]

I pulled mine out earlier as well - they were bolting quicker than I could eat the scapes and decided to pull them up and salvage what I could. They had all keeled over and the only things upright were the flower stems.

[Miss Mousetrousers]

For the second year running my onions are looking really good despite not having done anything particular with the soil. I tend to keep them a bit on the dry side which seems not only to give them more flavour, but also helps to prevent any mould or rot.

[Marb67]

Well some of the onions are almost falling out the soil. A gentle pul and most have no roots. Terrible terrible harvest

[Jay-ell]

how big are they?

[4Shoes]

Been a bad year. I'd planted sets for onions, shallots and Garlic... They were *****

I also had problems with germination of onion seed. `1st didn't germinate. so went to second round.

They germinated, grew on and put into cold frame and I forgot about them. Planted them out late and they are still growing. Not a good crop, but much better than the sets. Guess what I'll be doing next year?