Leggy onions?

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Armleywhite

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Leggy onions?
« on: March 28, 2013, 10:51 »
Hi

Planted a shed load of onion seed a while back and they've come on a treat.  However they are tending to lean towards the light and, even though I keep rotating the trays they appear a tad "leggy."

I read the trick of putting foil behind them and have now done so.  However, will they recover their "thickness" or are they destined to be long thin greens and limited growth at the bulb end?

Cheers :)

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Mark's Sussex Allotment

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Re: Leggy onions?
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2013, 12:26 »
I have the same problem and started the foil trick thread a few days back.

I have leggy tommys and have put foil behind them and am waiting to see what happens.
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fatcat1955

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Re: Leggy onions?
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2013, 14:19 »
Acclimatise your onion's to outdoors, Put them out under fleece in the day and bring them in at night. It is far too warm indoor's for onions.

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JayG

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Re: Leggy onions?
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2013, 14:50 »
Having got seeds to germinate, which usually requires a certain amount of warmth, the problem then becomes one of getting them to grow steadily and strongly, and not all plants have the same requirements.

Plants with a long growing season which therefore have to be sown early, like leeks and onions, will grow leggy if there isn't enough light to make the food to sustain the faster growth which too much warmth promotes, so the only realistic choice (other than artificial lighting) is to move them somewhere cooler but still as light as possible - not always that easy to achieve.

The tender summer plants, like tomatoes, squashes, sweet corn and beans can be sown later. I've not even contemplated sowing any of them yet for planting outside or in the unheated greenhouse because they will not tolerate temperatures lower than 10C either as seedlings or as maturing plants, and my house has a finite supply of sunny windowsills!

Very few crops will recover quickly or fully from a stop-start upbringing - some (like sweetcorn) will sulk for weeks if chilled, others (like onions or leeks) are more prone to bolting if growth is checked.
Sow your seeds, plant your plants. What's the difference? A couple of weeks or more when answering possible queries!

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sunshineband

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Re: Leggy onions?
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2013, 13:24 »
I have onions seedlings outside in one of those cheap plastic tomato houses with shelves, and they are doing just fine. Plenty of light and not too warm either

It is a temporary part of the garden 'furniture' right now, and is proving very useful as I don't have enought space for a proper coldframe at home
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Salmo

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Re: Leggy onions?
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2013, 23:59 »
Some may not approve of this. If you give your onions a haircut at about 2 inches they will stand upright and soon send out 2nd and 3rd leaves. If you leave them as they are you will probably loose that first leaf tip anyway when it touches the surface. The alternative is to give each plant a wire loop to support it, which is OK if you just have a few for show, but not if you have dozens for a kitchen crop.

I have onions sat in a cold frame. They seem to have done nothing for a couple of weeks and I cannot see them growing until we get warmer weather. The worry is that they will spoil if they remain static for much longer although one hopes that they are developing roots. With the prolonger cold will they bolt to seed?

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JayG

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Re: Leggy onions?
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2013, 10:51 »
I suppose that simple logic suggests that onions are more likely to be "stressed" into premature flowering later in their development than when very young, but quite honestly I don't know for sure, partly because when they do bolt there's been several month's growing to try to review to work out at which point, and why, it might have happened (and of course, who hasn't felt stressed by some of the weather over the past few years?!)   :wacko:


Edit1: Forum autocensor has changed the word "flower*ng" into "naughty" - will try to get it altered!  :lol:

Edit2: Flowering is now a permitted activity again at least as far as the autocensor is concerned!  ;)
« Last Edit: March 30, 2013, 12:05 by JayG »



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