Onions

[Hosta]

How do you know when they are ready ? 

[Hosta]

[saddad]

The leaves fall over and then die back...  :)

[Hosta]

The leaves already fell over, to be honest they never really stood up !! But they arent going yellow.

[kt.]

Once the leaves fall over they won't grow any bigger.  The size you will get is the size you've got now.

[Hosta]

Pulled one up to see how they doing - they arent much bigger than when I put them in - am so disappointed !!

[Tee Gee]

The leaves already fell over, to be honest they never really stood up !! But they arent going yellow.

Try supporting them vertically until the leaves turn yellow.

Hopefully this way they will increase in size.

[Hosta]

Will give it a try, thanks.

[MrBean]

Mine were about the same. but with almost no hold into the very dry soil, and what is probably white rot fungus. How do you get fungus when it's so dry? I was so cross I pulled them all up as most seem to have no roots in the ground. The slightest touch and they were up.

[delboy]

White rot is a real bummer. Out of nowhere it just arrives.

Once the tops have fallen over I see little benefit in doing anything other than pull them up.

Even where there is white rot, the onions can still be used to make onion chutney or "fry and freeze"

[MrBean]

I've done some trawling, and though the normal approach is to recommend burning the affected plants. Personally I would put them on the heap as you could just as easily be adding spores from onions you have bought for the kitchen. It seems that applying composted onion waste can significantly reduce rot attacks. There's also the suggestion that garlic powder applied t beds has the same effect. http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/whiterot.htm.

The rot arises because of over watering, in cold damp conditions, in hot dry conditions, in any month with or without an "R" in it. All I can assume from this is, it's out there and you may or may not get it, any time, any place.

Does anyone know what application rate for garlic powder is? Thinking about it, it might be possible to apply it to compost heaps so the affected plants can go on it as well.

This approach seems like a possible management tool. I don't see it is possible to get rid of any disease entirely, but living with it at a low level seems realistic.

[Hosta]

Mine dont have any rot

[MrBean]

Yet.

[Hosta]

Oh great, something else to look forward to !!

Am beginning to wonder why I bothered - Its so much easier to just nip down to the shop and just buy them !

[small]

I have white rot on my sturon onions for the first time in thirty years. So far half a row is affected, can anyone tell me if this is likely to spread to the rest of the crop? Some of them were at the stage where they just came loose without visible rot, so I shall freeze those: would I be safest to do this with the whole lot? I'm gutted.

[antipodes]

I just harvested my onions! they are lying round on the plot as we speak, drying a bit. I got a terrific crop this year, I manured late winter so they obviously liked it. And I kept them reasonably well weeded too, makes a change for me. There are one or two that are at least 12 cm wide! I planted Stuttgarter and a French variety, slightly flat, called Jaune Paille des Vertus.
I cheated - two weeks ago I flattened the leaves with the spade then when I saw everyone else harvesting, I did too. Hopefully I will have onions all winter this year!
I also have lots of nice red onions (not so big) and echalotes

[chriscross1966]

Lawks, already?..... My Kelsaes (and all the rest) are still growing away... I've a fair hope for a four-pounder this year.... given that they were late starting and didn't get cosseted that's not too bad..... indeed I'm pretty sure I'll have a crack at biggest outdoor onion on our site.....