chicken manure and onions

[laura G]

Hi, i have just bought a tub of chicken manure and i wanted to put it in the soil before i put my onions sets in, but it says on the back do not put to close to plants as it may burn (or something along those lines) what i want to know is how long after i put it on the soil should i wait before planting onions?
Hope this makes sense and please be gentle i am new to all this!  ???

Thanks Laura

[laura G]

[manicscousers]

hiya, Laura G..welcome to the site, we put chicken pellets down and mix them into the soil before planting  :)

[grawrc]

I thought ... just for a mo ... that this was a recipe..
Yes mix the pellets well into the soil then plant the onions. Well it works for me.

[laura G]

yum i must try that chicken manure and onion soup maybe  :P

[cornykev]

Hi Laura, I throw mine in the soil, read it again I'm sure they can't burn the plants, check out one of the other threads they was talking about this the other day. I also put four or five handfulls into a bucket of water and leave for a week, then top up the watering can when the onions are estabilished.  ;D ;D ;D

[cambourne7]

I have a large tub of CM as well but i think its got a life of about 3 months.

I had planned on adding it to the soil before i plant anything before christmas, and then give all the beds a general dressing in Feb just before i start planting.

I tend to use it in liquid form over the rest of the year as heavy clay is fairly good for food for plants.

I also ad a pellet to the bottom of peat pots for some plants which beans etc have especialy liked (unfortunaly it attracted the slugs more).

Cambourne7

[Froglegs]

I don't give my over Wintering Onion sets anything till April i just bug them in, the winter weather will wash any fertilizer away and plus you don't wont to much lush growth only for wind,(snow if ya lucky)rain and frost to damage, they only need to get established at this time of year its in the Spring when you need to get them going with a bit a CM.

[SnooziSuzi]

sorry to hijack your thread, Laura, but...

as someone new to gardening, I have planted onions which I have raised from seed since about July (maybe too late - it's a steep learning curve) but will these survive the winter if I leave them in the ground

[growmore]

Chicken Pellets are high in nitrogen .So if you scattered em around newly planted leafy young plants like cabbage etc there would be a risk of you scorching them.  Raking them in your onion bed prior to planting your sets should be OK ..But BFB or growmore would be better ...
Onion plants should be OK overwintering. Lots of us set our spring onions seeds in Sept and they stand the winter OK ..