Kitchen Garden Forum

Any suggestions what the problem here might be.

A neighbouring plotholder approached me tonight asking for my thoughts on his young onions grown from sets.
His problem caused me to look closely at my onions and I noticed that although the vast majority look strong and healthy with good growth a few of mine have problems.

Any suggestions on what may be the cause.

Some of those are Senshyu Yellow, planted from sets last October and some are Stuttgarter Giant, planted from set March this year.
I will take pictures of the two beds on Wednesday

Rain following long dry period?

Could be Peter. I am at a bit of a loss.

My colleagues were definitely a different problem, all his were still very small and the necks were rotting. Some looked as if onion bulb had been attacked by fly. when I left the plot last night he was digging all his white onions up and taking them away to local tip

My onions are in raised beds which do get drier than ground level. For that reason I have watered them from time to time during the driest spells. I have never experienced this before

Hi,

Your neighbours sounds a bit like onion rot. If it is, he's doing the best thing. I had it a couple of years ago - lost all my garlic. I can't grow onions/ garlic in that part of the plot now, and where I do is in the knowledge I could loose them all. I believe it spreads in the soil, not the air. Possibly brought in on the sets unfortunately.

Pa snip - agree - think yours is weather related - extremes from very wet to very dry . I'm sure they'll be fine - just a bit split.

Pawty

Thanks Pawty.

Agree with you about possibly coming into neighbours plot on sets. He got them late and his are consequently still small.
At the moment the bulk of mine are of a good size and not splitting

Hi Pa!

I'd be following everywhere your neighbour walked on your plot & disinfecting if it is rot. He would have it on his shoes & spread it around your plot. You drop a tool down on that, you could transfer the rot into your raised beds. Just an alert from the Elf & Safety monitor who spread club root around the 2 plots! I'm saved from that being a total disaster from clever breeding but haven't seen anything on the onion packs about much resistance! Or not of course!

Ta Westi, glad to say he did not venture on to my plot.

Senshyu Yellow

Planted into location as seen, from sets Oct 2015.

Stuttgarter Giant

Sown from sets, beginning March 2017

One suggestion received on plot today was that there maybe too much composted manure too near the surface in those beds.

They certainly look very healthy Pa and my feeling is that is is probably a prolonged period of dry weather that has caused your problem. The recent rain may hopefully have helped get things back on track. The samples you photographed suggest uneven growth, probably through lack of moisture ?

Cant disagree with you Primrose, its high on the contenders list.

It could be that yellow shed door onions don't do yellow