was catching slugs last night like you do, and saw a flower head on one of my over wintered
onions so i snapped it off, saw another, went to snap it and the whole thing came up,
theres hardly any root and the bottom is all yucky white fluffy mould
wat is it?
why is it there?
is there anything i can do?
do i give all the onions inthat bed a tug or just dig the lot up and burn em?
its on part f the plot that hasnt got raised beds yet so, i guess i cant grow onions
there again but if i make my next bed there can i grow other stuff?
thank you
lbb
Oh poor you.
It does sound like the blight of all onion lovers, white rot. Long-lived fungal disease that can survive for a decade or more in the soil.
Did your onion look like the one in the picture here?
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0800/onion_rot.asp
Hey lbb!
I always get something that matches the description of White Rot, but only ever gets a few & doesn't seem too rampant so it may not be the end... But yes, I'd give them all a tug - if they're rotten they won't be growing anyway.
Have fun out there catching slugs with your night vision goggles!
hmm yes i think that will be it, i dont have the necrotic black bits yet but...
so do i lift them all or just the ones round this one or?
if its likely just to be a small patch could i dig the infected soil out?
lbb
hi Ollie
night vision goggles i wish, i have been using my head lamp but every fly from miles
smashes into your face, so its just torches now.
lbb
Yep, check your crop -- clear out any affected onions straight into binbags - or get a bonfire going beforehand so you can chuck them straight on there.
I'm not sure how successful digging out the infected soil would be -- the only cases I've seen have been run-away awful (both times, old boys on our site who've grown onions in the same bit of their plots for years... )
It's got to be worth a go though, if it's just a few onions affected. But don't use your regular gardening gloves unless they can go in the wash, and clean any tools you use really thoroughly afterwards. Wiping off isn't good enough; they'll need scrubbing and rinsing with really hot water. (Dry all the metal off afterwards or it'll rust.)
Good luck. Fingers crossed that it's just one or two...
thank you triffid (and Ollie)
lbb
Pull out and burn any onions with signs of the disease, and be sure to rotate every year. I always lose the odd few, but it's never increased byond that.
We had it badly on our top plots when we took them over from an "old boy" who grew onions year on year... we decided not to grow any alliums there for 10 years... might try again next year as the decade is up... but as well have three other plots it hasn't been an issue... :-X