Why are my onions so small.... again....???

[mew]

Hi

Its the second year at growing my own and again my onions have done really poorly. I think my largest one is no more than about 5cm in diameter.
The green stems on the onions didnt fair too well and flopped over really easily (as was the case last year) - is this suppose to happen or (as Ive always believed) they should stand upright and proud.

The plots I used are in areas which get the least amount of sun (height of summer probably over the wall and gone by about 2-3 pm. Could that be it?

Should I be feeding them? I tend not to but I have manured before planting the sets.

Can anyone tell me the secret to successful onion growing - im desperate to have a decent harvest next year.

When do you usually plant your onions for over winter too? I planted some in Oct (I think) last year and they all came to nothing - rotted away - think it may have been too wet but not really sure - because I dont have an allotment as such (just a scrap bit of land behind my mum and dad's) I have no fellow allotmenteers to pick their brains whilst Im there.

Thanks for any help coming my way

MEW xx

[Rod in Japan]

In my experience, they do well in full sunshine and with plenty of feeding (chicken manure and urea). I mulched them one year, and they did very poorly.

[MKG]

Onions like sun (problem no. 1) and a rich soil (potential problem 1a) and they hate being wet through (1b). But I'd hazard a guess that you simply chose the wrong variety. Something I learned only recently is that there are long-day, standard-day and short-day varieties - all suited to varying hours of sunshine per day. Plant the wrong ones and you get small onions. In Britain, the long-day ones are best suited to Scotland, the short day ones to the south of England. In Staffs., I think the standard ones might be best.

Just a thought.

[mew]

oooo well I never knew that

Anyone know of any good standard day ones which I could try this autumn and then again next spring?

We have 3 rescue chooks too now so how old does the poop need to be dyou reckon before I can use it - and how much?

thanks again

MEW

[eccentric_emma]

how does one go about finding out whether a variety is long day, short day etc? is there usually something on the packet?? im sure i've never noticed, or never even heard about this before!

[Green Aura]

Mew

Are you using sets or growing from seed. Sets are already a few months old and so grow more easily into a full size onion. Seeds may need another season to get to a decent size.

[MKG]

Not really all that sure about how to tell day length with onions. This might be a starting point ...

http://www.vegetableexpert.co.uk/GrowingOnions.html

[eccentric_emma]

aha brilliant, thats exactly the sort of thing i was after. Thanks MKG.

[Rod in Japan]

Another thing I've noticed is that you have to plant them at the right time. I planted two lots of onions one week apart, and while the first batch grew huge, the second lot were very small.

[contadina]

It's important to make sure the earth around the onions doesn't tighten around them to restrict their growth too. The first year I grew them they were tiddlers as I didn't loosen the earth around them often enough and they simply didn't have any room to grow.

[Millymollymandy]

Onions need lots of water so keep watering them if the weather is dry.

[Peggy Sue]

MMM I think this may apply to France, relatively speaking, advice here is water them once a week only ( we did less than that this year)

[mew]

Hi

I grew them from sets not seed.

Maybe my wannabe green fingers are just that.... wannabe :0(

Fingers crossed for a bit of success next year. Actually - winter onions - any tips - thinking of having another go

Variety, best site and soil when to plant?

Thanks again

MEW x

[Peggy Sue]

It's probably not your fingers....I grew onions at home on my clay which I've worked really hard to incorporate compost over years and they were tiny. Then I gre them on the allotment that has lovely fine welldrained soil and they were huge and really successful- same fingers

[mew]

Thanks Peggy Sue

but sadly I cant claim the same as the plot where I grow my onions was dug out (it was pretty much full of rubble, bricks, glass, tyres, metal, plastic, bit of soil dotted about.......) and we had delivered 4 bulk bags of organic compost and 1 bulk bag of organic muck.

I will have to be more loving to them next year... whisper sweet nothings, I wonder if that'll do the trick lol? x

Mew x