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Twisted onion leaves but no bugs??

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George the Pigman:
Today I noticed that all the onion sets I planted in April have twisted leaves but otherwise appear healthy. Now my first thought was Allium Leaf Miner which have seen before but after pulling a plant and  thoroughly examining and picking apart all the leaves and the bulb I can find no evidence of the maggots or pupae or any damage to the leaves or bulb. Now looking online it seems that twisting of leaves is a common response of onions to a lot of things even including growth conditions.
Anyone seen this before i.e. twisted leaves and no bugs!

Paulh:
I'd go for aphids or something like that which have been predated off. If still growing OK, let it be, otherwise hoick them out!

Tee Gee:
Might be Thrips see here; https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/onion/onion-thrips.htm

JanG:
I was thinking of asking exactly the same question as I have had the same experience. But yesterday, on pulling a few more twisted leaf onions up and looking more closely, I found just one leaf miner bug of the brown variety.
After doing some more reading online, I wonder whether it’s possible that after this stage of pupating they might drop down into the soil and wait there until they fly again in September to October. Could it possibly be that many have already dropped? I’m still rather puzzled though because I can’t see evidence of tunnelling on mine. But this would be my first meeting with these creatures so I haven’t got any previous experience to draw on.

I’m certainly going to cover my leeks though, to defend against the possible later September/October infestation, and keep my fingers crossed that they weren’t already visited when I planted them out in the second week of May.

George the Pigman:
Don't think its thrips as its not the tips that are curled . The whole stem is twisted but healthy. I have a vague memory that this happened once several years ago and I left them and they were OK. Wondered if it could be growth conditions i.e. big variations in watering/temperature. I know some plants can have weird growth due to that. We have certainly had some weird and variable weather over the last few months!!

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