[VeggieVirgin]

I planted Japanese onion sets last autumn and they're beginning to be ready now (i.e. foliage falling over), but the bulbs are tiny. Most of them are about the size of pickled onions, a few are the size of spring onions, and one or two are about 4-5 cm  in diameter. Surely they're meant to be bigger than that? I had to use three tonight to make enough onion gravy for two people!

[AnneB]

I don't know what variety you have, but if they are Japanese bunching onions, then they are spring onion like but grow in small clumps that you can divide.  They will never grow into the sort of onion for onion gravy.

Would help if you said what variety.

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

If it's any consolation , mine are embarrassingly small.  I "fingered" them in the spring (loosened the soil around the bulbs) and fed them but they're not a happy sight if you can acutally spot them. 

They have a pathetic amount of foliage too which I suspect is why they are so small.

I did nothing different to last year when we had lush leaves and good sized bulbs, so I'm blaming it on the weather (and my lack of watering when it was so dry in spring) and will try again next year.

[JohnB47]

I planted 'yellow globe' seedlings, bought from a garden centre, last Autumn and they too are a bit pathetic. One or two are about the size of the smallest you get from a supermarket but most are golf ball size at most. Mind you, I've just chopped some to make soup and they are a nice white crispy onion.

They did look a bit small when I planted them and some died off over the winter - I recon I've got only half of what I planted.

If I decide to go for seedlings this Autumn, I'll make sure they're much bigger before I plant them out (I may grow them myself). But I may go for sets instead. I got a pretty good crop from sets last year - Sensui Yellow and (I think) Radar.

From my limited experience, I have a feeling that an early drought effects onions a lot - if they go dry in the first month or so in the ground then it doesn't matter what happens after that - they'll never recover. I've got one or two Stuttgarter that have been in the ground since April and the leaves are only an inch long! We have had a goodly dose of rain recently but the damage had already been done by the long dry spell we had in Spring.

[VeggieVirgin]

Thanks for replies.

Sounds like it's just not a good year for overwintered onions. (They aren't the bunching type, btw - they're just regular Japanese onion sets: I think they're Senshyu.)

[Trillium]

You've nailed it, johnB. Onions do need a fair amount of regular watering to do well. Not regular flooding, like frequent torrential rains, but some water on a regular schedule. The drought made things worse, especially for people who either had no access to water or who simply didn't bother. And yes, once they've suffered, they won't recover properly. We have now passed the soltice (June 21st), a crucial time for onion growth, and onions are now starting to wind down their growth, so there's less chance to recover before end of July when most are finished.

Contrary, last year we got too much rain and rot was prevalent. Or only short term storage before rot set in. The only way to deal with too much rain is to literally plastic tent the area so the soil can't become waterlogged and the onions will regain their normal growth.