[10dahlia]

i desperately need someone to tell me a good effective onionfeed/fertilser please help

[DD.]

How do you mean "rescue" & what makes you think feeding them will help? My seedlings don't need it, the sets aren't in and I'm waiting for the winter ones to start moving again before doing so,

[10dahlia]

we are preparing an area for planting onion sets .need a reccomendation on what feed to use

[DD.]

I thought from the thread title something had gone wrong!

I used chicken manure pellets for the first time last year and had a cracking crop.

[10dahlia]

last year our onion bed was rather shallow.this time we have doubled depth to 14 inches of soil.also we had a self watering system set up but with heavy rain we had last year we wondered if they had got over-watered.this time we are putting up a canopy to try and prevent it.last year our onions didnt get very big.not really much bigger than when we planted them as sets.

[DD.]

Blimey - apart from the chicken pellets & hoeing, I leave the rest to nature unless it's very dry.

I suppose with too much watering, you could have washed all the nutrients out. Onions are very shallow rooted so I don't think the depth is the problem.

[10dahlia]

thanks for good advice.cant beat nature when it comes down to it.ta!

[Rangerkris]

You know what you need to do to your Onions 

Im sure someone will be along soon to tell you what you need to do.

[MOLUSC]

One of the experienced old boys on our site left us with his secret onion formula before passing away-

bonemeal
potash
superphosphate

Equal quantaties of each.
His recipe is up on the wall of our allotment shop and is used by most of us with great results .

Fish blood and bone also gives them a boost once they get going.

Here are some other "recipes" that you may want to try on other crops.
http://www.burhill-allotments.co.uk/fertilisers.html

[10dahlia]

how much of secret recipe per square yard

[JohnB47]

10dalhia - I also had a crop of very small onions last year but I planted them well past the recommended planting time and I'm pretty sure that's the reason. Same with Garlic.

So I planted some over wintering types last Oct and will add to this with summer varieties this year as soon as it's safe.

When did you plant yours last year? That might have more relevance than the planting depth.

[10dahlia]

i think we planted spring time. this year we got onion sets again [sturon and red baron] packet says plant spring time woukd you agree

[10dahlia]

turns out beloved says we did plant a bit late and in a rush.all info helps ta!

[SnooziSuzi]

my onions from sets were so big last year I should have entered them into a show... seriously, they were the size of teaplates!

Yet my neighbour (from whom I was given the sets) grew the same and his were pathetic.

THe difference was that I put my onions on a bed that I had put the chicken manure on straight from the henhouse (poop mixed with straw cleaned out weekly) and then just let them get on with it.  one or two did bolt, and I was surprised with so much manure that they didn't just go soft but they stored really well - I'm still eating them now!

I agree with DD, just prepare your ground, stick them in and leave them (apart from weeding of course - they don't like to compete).  I have heard that using wood ash from a bonfire (as long as it hasn't had other things like plastics/rubber etc or an accellerant used to start the fire) works really well because they need the potash.