Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: jambop on April 17, 2014, 10:01
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Help my shallots are dying off! They were going well then one by one they have started to wilt and die off. Is it too late to start some more off? I have dug a few of the wilted ones up and found them to have roots but the bulb was soft and soggy and some had maggots at the base.
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Sounds very much like the larvae of onion fly, although it seems very early in the season to be suffering from them now, and sets are usually reckoned to be less susceptible than alliums grown from seed, so you are unlucky on both counts. :(
It could be because of the mild winter, and if you are growing them where you grew alliums last year they could well have already been overwintering in the soil.
I think you would probably get away with replanting, but not where you had alliums growing last year. Prevention usually means enviromesh type netting, there are biological controls too but they tend to be quite expensive.
Pic of onion fly larvae HERE (http://organicgardensite.com/bugs-harmful/onion-maggots/)
Edit: Just looked at some of your previous posts and note that you live in SW France - I would imagine the life cycle of the onion fly runs to different timescales from the UK, and that with warmer summers you should certainly be OK planting again.
What I really really know is that adding something like "SW France" to your forum profile would save those trying to answer your questions from either having to remember, or otherwise trying to work out, your location. ;)
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Shallot bulbs will always go soft and squishy. This is just the old bulb being fed unto the new ones. Can't help with the maggots though I'm afraid.
Totty
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But they are wilting and dying too!
There are a few things that cause similar symptoms. In any case, rotate alliums for a few years.