[stephenandbeverley]

Hi All,

Confession here - I sowed my onions too close together to hoe them without damaging them, so weeding so far has been done by hand, and not much has been done at all to that bed for about 10 days so weeds are rampant.

Do I really have to weed it? We do suffer from bindweed which i remove whenever i see it strangling an onion but as i have over 350 onions in the ground hand weeding intensively for the next x amount of weeks isn't very appealing, what can i do? Can i just leave the weeds?

Thanks

Stephen

[mumofstig]

I would guess that you would get much smaller bulbs, as the onions would be competing for food and water with the weeds.
Would you be better off using every other bulb while green, so that you can gradually start weeding with a hoe? ...just an idea

[Christo]

I've got exactly the same problem, except that I only have 50 bulbs in the ground. I am therefore resigned to manual weeding every week to stop the poor things from being deprived of their nutrition. Lessons learned eh.

[stephenandbeverley]

Thanks for the replies! I think mumofstigs idea is a good one, especially as most of them have bolted so won't store that well either.

I should have known better, I sowed them too close last year as well. Whenever I plant/sow anything it always arches off hence why my rows are all too close together! What a donut!
I was just hoping someone had a magical answer!

[goodegg]

the magical answer is as mum says use them now to open up space for weeding or you will end up with little onions and next year plant them at least eight ins apart each way then you will be able to weed inbetween ,good luck.

[SarahB]

Last autumn I planted over-wintering onions, and mulched with leaves (about 3" deep).  Didn't seem to affect the onions but did stop the weeds from getting a hold.  Obviously you have to get the ground clean first, but it might be worth trying. 

[daisy1990]

or alternatively make raised beds (presuming you dont already have them) you can plant everything much closer together, it grows well with little weeding