[Goosegirl]

I have garlic, shallots and onion sets growing nicely. Is it wise to use well-rotted manure as a mulch between the rows to keep weeds down or not.

[I Love Spuds]

I always thought onions didn't like manure, so would give it a miss personally.

Perhaps you could use grass cuttings to mulch instead, as it's about the time of year for cutting the lawn?

[rowlandwells]

that's interesting because I was going to cultivate some manure in my onion bed prior to planting but as ILS points out onion don't like manure so om going to use a low nitrogen fertilizer instead together with wood ash before planting out

[AnneB]

I usually give my onions a feed or two with chicken manure pellets.  That seems to do them good.  I try to plant them far enough apart so I can hoe between them to keep weeds down.

[Nobbie]

If it's well, rotted there should be no problem. I'm just about to plant out my onion sets through a layer of manure put on the ground in Jan with a similar idea.

[rowlandwells]

as I said in my previous reply I was going to top dress the soil on the onion bed with low nitrogen fertilizer but a fellow gardener said if I spread my horse manure then cultivate it into the ground before planting it would be ok

still a bit sceptical about doing this without some advise got plenty of horse manure stacked from last year what would you do horse manure and cultivate in or top dress with low nitrogen fertilizer?

[mumofstig]

John's advice

Planting out soil can be light to medium density, must be well-drained, and have some rotted manure or compost dug in the previous autumn but not be overly rich. Potash can be added as ashes or in fertilizers.

Growing Onions - How to Grow Onions - Allotment & Gardens

[Goosegirl]

Thanks all. After all the wet weather we've had my soil was probably a bit low in nutrients so I added BFB before planting. As said, too much nitrogen will make them soft so what about spent mushroom compost as a  mulch?