Friends for onions

[stevieturnip]

I've been planting my onion sets in the ground recently and wondered if anyone could recommend so little friends I could plant with them as either a catch crop or as companion planting.

The plot I have has not been used for 20 years and I am expecting couch grass hell this year, so ideally I'm looking for something that would be vigorous enough to compete with that and perhaps blanket it out a bit, but won't upset my little babies so that they mature in to lovely big bulbs of oonions.  Any ideas?

[stevieturnip]

[saddad]

Onions don't like company much but you could always catch crop some small radish... as opposed to winter radish, or pod radish..  :)

[telboy]

Couch grass competition - Nah sorry.
Forget spuds, they'll grow through those!
Carrots are good companions for onions (carrot root fly).
See how things go. Get rid is the answer.

[KathrynH]

Not sure anything will compete with couch grass if it's as bad as you say but I always plant my carrots in between my onions. Some say its an old wives tale but I find that the onion foliage really does deter carrot fly.

[Eristic]

A Petunia.  8)

[betula]

I have always been friends with me onions ???

[rosebud]

 ;D ;D ;D, @Eristic

[Robert_Brenchley]

I wouldn't try a catch crop as the onions are easily out-competed when they're small. Once the bulbs are ripening it doesn't matter so much. I tried interplanting them with sweet corn last year and that worked well.

[PurpleHeather]

Many years ago when we got our plot, it was riddled all sorts.

All you can do is dig and pull out as soon as you can see them rise, if you can.

Onions are happier alone in a weed free environment. So I always allow at least double the width of the hoe for spacing the onions. It helps, but hand weeding is still needed for around the bulbs. Some chap showed me how to reduced the disturbance of the bulbs by using the long blade of an old kitchen knife for weeding.

They do say that the smell of the onions puts off carrot fly but I thought it was a row of carrot seeds and a row of spring onion seeds, rather than  onion sets.

Since this has never worked for us, perhaps it should be a row of carrot seeds and a row of onion sets. If so, then onion sets are planted long before carrots are due in.

Gardening gets  more confusing all the time.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I cover them with 2-3 inches of dead leaves or grass cuttings. That suppresses the weeds until the bulbs are ripening, and saved hoeing as well as keeping the birds off and enriching the soil.

[stevieturnip]

I cover them with 2-3 inches of dead leaves or grass cuttings. That suppresses the weeds until the bulbs are ripening, and saved hoeing as well as keeping the birds off and enriching the soil.

Thanks everyone.  As a total novice this forum really helps.  Though this ideas seems like it might help.  I'd heard that onions liked to be alone, so maybe I'll gather a few leaves for one bed and try some carrot sowing in the other and see what works, if anything.

That couch grass is going to be the bane of my life this year I reckon.

[beckydore]

I planted onions in a bed I'd cleared of couch grass the first year. The couch grass came back and overtook the onions.
Last year I planted in a patch with strawberries and that worked well - onions are supposed to improve the taste of the strawberries. They did taste fab but I didn't have any planted away from onions.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Couch grass is a pain, but the secret is to keep at it. Grow a crop, dig out every bit you can - not so hard as you can dig out a whole root in one piece with care - grow another crop, have another go at it. Eventually you get rid of it.

[haricot]

These might be some friends for your onions.  Beetroot, Carrots, Lettuce and a few Cabbage. ;)

[manicscousers]

Hiya, haricot, nice to meet you  ;D
just about to start some haricots in the house  ;D