My onions have gone mouldy

[Millymollymandy]

It's all over the green bits - botrytis possibly? Now what do I do? Will they grow any more? Will they store?

Wahhhhh

[ina]

Poor Mandy... Can't help you much, that hasn't happened to me (yet!), but this year is a real bummer - nothing seems to go right, does it!

[flower]

can you slice and freeze them?

at least then you'll have them for stir fries and stews
my onions are looking pretty rough...and my shallots appear to have been munched completely!

[Millymollymandy]

I'm just going to leave them be for the moment. I tried one of the red onions but the only red bit was the outside skin and next layer - that's probably due to the lack of sunshine - and although it was edible it tasted very immature. They really need another month (of sunshine!! ha ha ha! [hysterical smiley ]).

I will start pulling the larger white ones now to use in cooking and won't buy any more.

I actually was almost self sufficient in onions last/this year - we ate the last red one (albeit sprouting) only a week or so back!

[Thurston Garden]

If it's a grey mould it could be botrytis remove and discard as much of the affected leaves as you can. I would leave the bulbs as long as they are not affected - see of they continue to grow.

Although it's no consolation, my onions are doing very little, not helped by th rabbits who continually mow the tops off the stems.

Infact, outside is a complete disaster - I have not even been able to walk on the soil for 5 weeks now....

[Millymollymandy]

I've googled and it is downy mildew - which loves cool humid weather. Doesn't sound like my onions are likely to mature or store well, unless of course I start spraying with the hundreds of different chemicals suggested on the websites I've been looking at! No organic control available of course.

I also didn't know that onions suffered from blight either - Botrytis Leaf Blight known as BLB.