Heeelp Onion Problem

Can anyone help with a problem we are having with our onions, they were planted out in May and have been growing along nicely until about 7days ago.

Then we noticed 3 plants, their leaves had started to curl, like a pigs tail, that was last Wednesday, by Friday more had started to curl and the leaves then flop and go soft, this has affected both shop bought sets (stuttgarter) and home grown seed (Unwins exhibition and Ailsa Craig).

The other strange thing is even when the leaves are first emerging, instead of growing straight as normal, some are already curled as they emerge.
I am unable to show any pics as I don't yet have the softwhere to allow me to download them from my phone camera.

There are quite a few allotmenteers on our site with the same problem but know one knows what it is.

Please can you help.

Don't seem to have got to the bottom of the curly tomato leaves either come to think of it..........I just blame the weather.............for everything

Hopefully here are the pics, as you can see the plant is a bit wilted now, but the roots are very healthy, the outer casing of the bulb was very soft and spongy, so I split open the bulb and under the 3rd layer it appears to look healthy but strange

There are no silver streaks on the leaves and no rotting, they just curl and flop over, as I said some are even emerging curled.
One plotholder who took several affected plants to Webbs of Wychbold Garden Centre said it could be herbicide. We did have a quarter load of manure 20 months ago, last years onions we absolutely fine.

We would appreciate knowing the cause of this problem. We have 3  plots of onions , sets planted at the same time ,around 1,000 in total. The middle plot seem "normal" while the plots either side are showing this curly way of growing. I inspected the roots of one and it seems OK , no evil maggots or white mould ! We have nt put any manure on the ground for a few years ,only use our home made compost .

I wonder if the curly leafed onions will develop decent sized bulbs. June is the month when the bulbs swell, so I am keeping my eye on them.

I have been searching every website I can think of but this strange phenomenon is not mentioned. I have been growing veg for 34 years , never seen this before.

As said before curly leaves on tomatoes are nothing to worry about but on onions !! Strange !!

Have a look at this. It was mentioned as a possible cause by "azubah" on another thread.

Allium Leaf Miner Damage

Thanks DD , it certainly looks as if the leaf miner may be the culprit. We are not that far from Wolverhampton . Its annoying to say the least , we can t imagine not growing onions ,will avoid planting near this years plot and see if that helps next year. It does nt seem to have affected the leeks or garlic thank goodness.

Hi everyone, I think I might have found the culprit.
I got out my magnifying glass & went exploring, this is what I found.

Nothing apparent in the bulb or roots, but upon slicing open each leaf I found these little 3mm long pupae, brown in colour as you can see, one still in situ, the other I removed from inside a mature leaf.

What pest do they belong to, how shall I proceed & do I destroy the entire crop

Oh Poo - my onions are looking much the same 

Really helpful picture vron, I'll go grab one that looks sick and see if I can find anything in the leaves.

.......

Look what I found in a leaf crease about the size of a grain of rice. The bulb and roots looks clear though.