Growing Onions through plastic

[raisedbedted]

Hello everyone,

In a fit of madness I have taken on another plot and am quite concerned about not having enough time in the year ahead.

I want to cut down on some of the labour intensive tasks and number one on my list is weeding onion and strawberry beds.

I am thinking about planting through slits in porous membrane, and cutting round holes in it for shallots.  Has anyone else tried this and, most importantly, did it work?

Many thanks

[raisedbedted]

[carolinej]

I was thinking the same thing. There is so much couch grass on my plot, I think it will probably take all of my time keeping it down. I have heard that slugs can gather under a membrane, dont know if thats right ???Looking forward to everyones replies.

cj :)

[manicscousers]

all our strawberries are planted through weed suppressing membrane..we get plenty of beautiful strawberries..don't know about onions, supersprout mulches hers, I think?.. :)

[Jeannine]

I  sometimes grown my squash on black plastic,especially if it the type that needs a long season. You have  to tether the vines down as they grow. I have done pickling cukes the same way but it a raised bed.XX Jeannine

[real food]

Yes, I always plant my onions, garlic and shallots through porous weed control fabric. For details, go to my web site http://web.onetel.net.uk/~davesherriff
I am working on a much expanded site, 60 odd pages, to be uploaded hopefully in the next couple of months.

[john-the-window]

The slugs love it they breed like wildfire
but if you have a slow worm it's not to bad.

[Barnowl]

I've got most of my winter onions surrounded by 'Strulch', which seems to be doing a really good job of suppressing the weeds. I'm becoming quite a fan of the stuff. Although it's not cheap it does go a long way.

http://www.strulch.co.uk/


PS Harrod Horticultural is cheaper than the organic catalog if you are buying more than two bags

[cornykev]

Never heard of onions under plastic ???, they like the soil dug over and finely raked and don't like to compete with weeds. I'm with the anti slug >:( brigade I really think its like butlins  8) for the slugs under the plastic but I know a lot on here grow spuds under it so maybe they will tell you different story but as for onions I'm very dubious.  :-\  ;D ;D ;D

[raisedbedted]

The only thing I can see against it is whether the moisture that would be under the plastic would cause any rotting on the onions, therefore whether to plant through slits or make holes.

The slugs I'm not worried about - I've never had slug problems on my onions and will use nemaslug again this year anyway.

Think I'll give it a go, I've seen many different crops growing through plastic and with a lb of onion sets @ 65p theres nothing to lose!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I take a different aproach and chuck a couple of inches of grass cuttings on top of all my alliums. They come straight up through it, it stops the birds playing with the sets, and cuts out most of the weeds as well.

[raisedbedted]

Thats encouraging, as this together with the strulch idea makes me think it would work with plastic.

The raeson for plastic rather than organic mulch is the amount of bindweed and couch I have in the new plot I have taken over.  Think spaghetti Bolognese and vermicelli.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I see your point! It would probably work as far as the shallots are concerned, though knowing those horrible weeds, they'll come up through the holes quite happily.