Growing onions

Hello,

In my first year of owning my house i decided to try and grow some veg. I went to a local garden centre and bought a tray of red onions for about £1.50. They were tonnes and all about 2-3 inches tall. All i did was transfer into a big trough and i ended up with a really successful crop.

Last year i couldnt find the same so i tried growing them from seed/bulb?

These were a disaster. They all sprouted up and started to grow really well, then they all started flopping one by one. They seemed to lose their strength. They were watered and fed well.

Did i do something wrong? Had i planted them incorrectly? Was it down to the wet weather we had?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Craig

 

Hi Craig,

Could have been damping off fungus, did you notice any white mold on the soil?

 

Hmm i cant really remember, there possibly could have been

The stalks near the bulbs went very thin causing the top of the stalk to topple over.

Is there anything i could do to prevent this fungus?

Is there a really wrong way to plant onion sets?

 

Craig, you don't say if you planted in a container(as the year before)?

 

I grew the onions in a big plastic trough for both years.

At the end of the first year when i had 1 or 2 left, there were a few toadstools in the trough which i removed. I then removed the soil and filled it up again in Spring for the next years onions which they then failed.

Could this be why then? the fungus issue?

however, it was a very wet year and they failed shortly after we had all that rain.

If it is the fungus issue, with it being a plastic trough, could i clean it out and disinfect it? or would it just be best to buy a new trough?

thank you all for your replies by the way!

 

Do you mean the first successful year were little seedlings when you bought them, rather than sets (bulbs)?

Would people recommend growing from seed/seedlings rather than buy sets, which I get reasonable but not spectacular results from?

 

Loofah mentioned Onion White Rot, which is a bother for onions I agree, but I think it was more likely to be damping off at the seedling stage, especially as you say with the wet weather & lack of sun. Ideal conditions for it.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=151

Change the compost & clean the troughs with a proprietary fungicide. Don't overwater & water from below rather than above.

Oh, and pray for some Sunshine this year

 

Hiya Craig.

Because these were grown in a trough, I wouldn't have thought there's any major issue, if any. It wouldn't hurt to disinfect the trough, just to be on the safe side. As far as I know, onions don't like wet conditions. Have you put some holes in the bottom for drainage(most important!)? The compost you used, did it have an 'open' structure? If you used a soil based compost, it can become waterlogged and then set hard when it dries out. In that situation, I would probably mix a soil based compost with some multi-purpose, 50/50. Some grit wouldn't be a bad idea too. Having said all that, last year was a stinker Hope this helps.

Cheers...Freddy

 

Hi all,

yeh i can confirm that i bought the first years batch as a tray of seedlings, they were already about 2-3 inches tall with a tiny root at the bottom. I just gently transfered them into my trough using a dry ish compost.

the 2nd year i couldnt find the same type of onions that were already set off so i tried the bulbs that come in them bags. I put them in the same trough with fresh compost, however a different type of compost which was a lot more moist. Then we had a very very wet spring/summer.

after looking at pictures on google of the fungus, its looking a lot more like the water issue! I assumed that onions liked a lot of water and watered them every day.

Thank you all for your advice! i will go back to the original drier compost and water a little less often. I have put in drainage holes but i will add a few more to be safe. I've seen Monty use grit a lot on gardeners world so i might start adding that to compost mixes.

once again, thank you for your wisdom

 

This trough, did it have enough drainage?

My dad lost about 2/3rds of his onions last year due to poor drainage. Ironically, mine did well (first time I'd grown them) but they were planted in areas that I'd dug really, really deep and loose so very free draining.

 

That is so so true Andy ! I say , if it has a 50 -50 chance of going wrong , it will go wrong 9 times out of 10

 

Funnily enough, onions do better in drier summers!

Make sure you have free-draining soil/compost, keep the soil moist and weed free.

 

I think i might have a try at starting the onions by seed myself this year.

I'm hoping to go to the garden centre this weekend and buy a packet.

I'll be starting them off indoors. When is the best time of year to do this?

 

You can sow them anytime now, but best to wait until March, imo