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Bringing food production home

OK. What's the secret to growing onions in Perth??
I have tried for a few years now, they don't die, they just don't grow any bigger!
I buy seedlings from B--gs. Is there a special time of year that they will only grow?
I have reasonable success with most veggie's but not onions, although spring onions grow quite well.
Red, white and brown - no success.
Any tips??

Have tyou tried growing them from seed.

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dont know about Perth, but they seem to be quiet easy to grow from seed. Apparently the trick is to plant the seedlings out into the ground on the shortest day of the year. You need to maintain moisture with out over watering. do not use fresh manure or blood and bone near planting time and they dont like nitrogen.

This is my fourth year and i still cant get it right. If i can get them to grow, they end up shooting to flower.

I'm trying them for the first time and used seedlings, only time will tell now.

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LV aka Tony
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Definitely NO fertilizer at all

Mine grow fine down here, same got seedlings from nursery planted them out and away they go, we are having wicked frosts atm, maybe that helps but garlic is also screaming along

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Nocky
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My Garlic is screaming along also. Might give seeds a try as no luck with onion seedlings.

My onions never grew out either just dug them up and there was nothing at all.

I think fertilising the bed may have been the problem.

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Cheers,

LV aka Tony
My Blog

You got it definatley no fertiling the 12 months before

So no fertilising before planting, but what about during the growing? Should I be putting a soluble fertiliser on every two weeks like I do with my other vegetables?

I was also told that when planting the seedlings (that I grew from seed) to only just cover the roots because the bulb grows above the ground. I actually planted them by laying them flat on the ground and covering the roots up to the bottom of where the bulb should be. They stood up by themselves. Could this have caused your problem?

On on fertilizing at all laying them flat is the right way never had a bad crop that way

Yeah I've never had a lot of troubles with onions, but I don't really fertilize anything, only ever mulch and compost. I guess I don't grow a lot of onions though...

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Bringing Food Production Home

seeing as we dont do so well, would it come down to a ph thingy. We dont fertilize, we plant just the root and yet we dont really get great onions.

This year we even made sure we planted on the shortest day.

Ph? yep maybe, I limed the bed before sowing. Peter Cundall reckons it gives a sweeter, more flavoursome onion.

Check the Allium Bed.
After seeing that gardening segment, first thing next morning saw me scraping off the mulch.
Never tried onions but have some garlic and also shallots this year.

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