[Raven50]

Hi to Everyone from a very rainy Stoke on Trent!
Myself and my partner Martyn have had an allotment for the past four years, and this year we've had a disaster with our onions, along with, as we discovered yesterday, at least four of the other allotmenteers on our site. We all have two varieties (Stuttgarter Giant and Sturon) which we all bought from a well-known high street household store. It now appears that we all have onion stem/bulb eelworm. My question is, why have we got it now? None of the other allotmenteers have had it before, and some have had their plots for twenty or thirty years. Could it have been dormant in the bulbs when we bought them? Do we have to take up all our onions and burn them? Can we plant any more onions as replacements (in a different bed, obviously!) or is it too late? Any advice gratefully received,
Thanks for reading,
Amanda

[mattwragg94]

First of all - welcome to the site, fortunatly i have never suffered from onion eelworm - but i do know that its too late to plant onions  - in a couple of months you will however be able to plant over-wintering onions - although these will not be ready until around june next year!

[Yorkie]

Welcome to the site 

I'll pop this over to GYO where the veggie growers are found.  Feel free to pop back and introduce yourself for a bigger welcome 

[engineer]

Hi Raven50 welcome 

Here is a quote from The Vegetable & Herb Expert

Stem and Bulb Eelworm---swollen, distorted foliage indicates attack by the microscopic soil living pest. young plants are killed, older plants produce soft bulbs which cannot be stored.

Treatment--Lift and burn infected plants

Prevention--do not grow onions, peas beans or strawberries, for several years, on land affected by stem and bulb eelworm.     

So it would appear that it is soil born and not to do with the quality of the sets


hope this helps you for next year, but don't get downhearted

[Growster...]

May not be an answer Raven - welcome BTW, but have you any leeks to hand, which can make an alternative, similar tasting crop?

We had an onion problem last year, (not yours, which is much more serious), so I doubled up on leeks, and they stood until March this year!

I know they're not the same, but they are a substitute!

Good luck anyway!

[Plot 6B]

May not be an answer Raven - welcome BTW, but have you any leeks to hand, which can make an alternative, similar tasting crop?

We had an onion problem last year, (not yours, which is much more serious), so I doubled up on leeks, and they stood until March this year!

I know they're not the same, but they are a substitute!

Good luck anyway!

A good answer.
You could always try growing in raised beds with fresh compost and soil which I have done after a bad start on my Onions.

[Salmo]

Eelworms can easily be carried on plant material such as onion sets. Tulip and daffodil bulbs are given a hot water treatment to kill eelworms, I am not sure if onions are given the same.

If the eelworms are only in crops grown from sets from one supplier you should perhaps inform them that this has happened. It may be that their treatment was not done properly and other customers have the same problem.

The soil has been continuously wet which will have allowed the eelworms to move around more easily. The only cure is good hygiene and long rotation.

The following may help with identification
DETECTION AND IDENTIFICATION
Symptoms In general, this nematode causes swellings and distortion of aerial plant parts and necrosisor rotting of stem bases, bulbs, tubers and rhizomes (see section on Biology). On Allium spp. (onions, garlic, leeks, etc.) Penetration of onion leaves by D. dipsaci causes leaf deformation and leaf swellings or blister-like areas on the surface. The leaves grow in a disorderly fashion, often hang as if wilted and become chlorotic. Young plants can be killed by high infestations. The inner scales of the bulb are usually more severely attacked than the outer scales. As the season advances the bulbs become soft and when cut open show browning of the scales inconcentric circles. Conversely, D. dipsaci on garlic does not induce deformation or swellings, but causes leaf yellowing and death (Netscher & Sikora, 1990).

This is where it came from if you are feeling a bit academic
http://www.eppo.org/QUARANTINE/nemat.../DITYDI_ds.pdf