Kitchen Garden Forum

Help please, my onions just give up when they get slightly larger than set size! I live in the Highlands above Loch Ness and have been cultivating part of an old field, brassicas, tatties, peas, broad beans and roots (except beetroot grrr) do very well but onions and shallots seem to start off well then struggle and give up........ what am I doing wrong ??? I have a sandy clay soil and this is only the second year of cultivation, previously it was a grassland. Any advice gladly taken and tried out.
Thanks Mole

Hmm this seems to have foxed everybody as well as me. I'll throw some ideas into the pot to see if anyone agrees or disagrees. Possibly pH could be a problem so if I put in some extra manure this autumn then lime in spring would that work? Another could be cold spring soil conditions, is it worth trying to grow some in the polytunnel over winter or should I plant in spring in the polytunnel? I've never had problems with onions/leeks before until I moved here

Hello Mole. If it's any consolation to you, our onions haven't taken off like they usually do either! My husband prides himself on his onions and we have always had a good crop of decent sized ones. We didn't do anything different to previous years but the onions are small to medium sized instead of medium to whopper!
I can only put it down to the weather conditions we had early on in the season...hot and dry with no rain to speak of through May, June and July, followed by almost constant rain and low temperatures(for the time of year) in August. Some sets which were planted out in May as an experiment are still only golf ball sized...yet the shallots have been brilliant
I would think that you have suffered similar variations in the weather in your very beautiful part of the country!
Our onions, shallots and leeks are planted in the previous years potato plot which was liberally "mucked" in the autumn before planting the potatoes.
Sorry I can't offer anything more technical but here's to next year!
Cheers.