[Missy1970]

My red onions have hardly grown this year walked round the allotments having a nose and it seems its not personnal - anyone any secrets to give them a growth spurt before they all bolt ?? gave them a FB&B feed on impulse and a good drink so hopefully they will pick up

Missy

[potatogrower]

I've had the same problem

mine have started to bolt and had a peek and they are not very big.

Something strange about this hot spring weather we've had, its just seem to boost the growth too much.

consideringlooking into growing from seeds next year.

[Trillium]

Onions are basically a cool weather crop and excessive heat and too little water will make both seedlings and sets bolt. Simply snap off the new flower spike asap and mark the plant so that at harvest time you'll use these up first as they won't keep long in storage.

Usually its a soil problem with onions. They like rich soil, which means some rotted manure, BFB (blood, fish & bonemeal) and a bit of lime so they can absorb the former. They need regular, but not heavy, watering that goes down deep enough. Better to water a few times deeply than often and shallow. They need to be kept weed free as well.

First year soil clearings are often not great for onions. Building up soil over a few years will eventually give you better harvests, so be patient and keep trying.

[aelf]

I didn't bother with red onions this year because they never seem to do as well as the white ones.

[arugula]

We usually grow white onions with shallots and garlic but this year our first attempt at red onions alongside garlic and shallots seems to be going well, but then we've had the opposite kind of weather to that in the south, for the past few weeks.

[totalnovice]

My red onions are making a bid to take over the world!  they from Autumn sets which i put in around the begining og November. I sprinkled over some sulphate of ammonia in early march which was rained in, but since then i (like the rest of the country it seems) have had very little rain. The soil is cracked, the few weeds that have tried to grow have been hoed off and the onions seem to be very happy - i've snapped off a couple of flower heads but ma thinking that i'll need to dig some soon as they are getting very close together - some are about 6" in diameter!
White onions are just the same - really going for it this year.