WEEDING ONIONS

When is the best time to weed around my onions? I've been told that weeding to often attrackts onion fly,is there a certain time of the year or weather that attrackts the fly? I lost about 2/3 of my onions to fly last year, but have moved my onions to a different part of the garden this year.

ryland

 

Hi. i am not the most experience onion grower on here, but i can tell you that you will need to weed your onions before they become effected by the weeds overunning them, best to weed as often as you can when the weeds are small because you cause less disturbance also try not to walk in the onions to much as breaking the stems will cause a nice strong onion smell and attract the pests. I have read in numerous articles to mix your onions amongst other plants in smaller groups rather than have a big plot, you can also grow some Tagetese at the end of the rows as they have a strong smell that will cofuse the pests also. To sum up, the idea s to create as little smell as possible and do what you can to distract the pests.

 

If you can put a mulch around them after you've weeded it'll save on having to get back between them as they get bigger, there come a point when there is too much stem around to get in there without breaking them.

 

Don't use a hoe too close to the plants or you risk root damage and disease. I try to fingertip weed and get the weeds out as soon as I can get hold of them.