Manure for garlic and shallots

I have manured my onions and Garlic which seens to have done the job , so i would say go for it. (unless anyone else dissagrees!?)

if you are going to grow Root vegetable (carrots, parsnips etc) then you should not manure that area if they will be planted soon as i understand the roots will turn out all mis- shapen due to it searching for the goodness (Nitrogen) released by the manure.

As i have done with my allotmet, I have planned for next season and only manured areas that will benefit the veg i want to grow, so i recommed thinking ahead.

I hope this helps.

I didn't use manure last year for the onions -- I put some blood fish & bone down a few weeks before planting the sets in Spring.

This year I put some down before planting the garlic a couple of weeks ago.

Werks fer me 

I tend to follow potatoes with onions and roots (carrots and parsnips).  So the ground was manured for the potatoes then I add some spent compost after I have dug the potatoes in later summer/autumn. I then plant onions and garlic in the autumn and carrots, onions and parsnips the following spring.  The spent compost (eg from old flower pots etc) has no nutrition but does keep the clay soil at bit lighter.

From a more scientific point of view, onions will store energy to flower. If the soil is full of nutrients then it can get most of it's nutrients from the soil when needed.  If the soil is a bit lacking in nutrients then it will store up as much as posible in the base of its stem (ie the part we eat) for when it flowers.

Why thank you

The other scientific approach is that if there are too many nutrients/water the onions will probably grow larger but will be leafy and prone to disease and not store well. Half starved onions will be smaller but denser and store better. The secret is to strike a balance which you can only achieve by experience of your own soil and climate.