Allotments 4 All

Hi all,

My onion seedlings are not looking to good. I sowed them in propagators on the 28th Dec in my conservatory. They came up well. I moved them to the greenhouse on the 26th of Jan which I have heated on cold nights keeping the temp about 7 degrees at night.

A while back I noticed some of them lying flat and then the stem was starting to go a straw colour. They have continued to send up more stems. I am sure it must be something I am doing wrong. Last year was my first attempt from onions from seed and they where fine.

Any advice please. I have even bought sets now just in case these fail!!!

Could they have got too cold? My daffs were flopping and looking sick a couple of days ago, but I noticed this afternoon that they've perked up. See if they inprove now it's a bit warmer.

Sounds like damping off .... generally too much watering, also copper fungicides are very effective against it but nothing much else is, the spores are everywhere so just cos the kit was clean (or not) won't have an effect on whether you get it or not... Onions are pretty ross feeders too so it might be that the compost is spent in terms of nutrients, but overwatering would be my favourite...

Thanks chriscross. Will they still be ok they are still growing most are just over 3 inches. Would a liquid feed or some FBB be a good idea.

I'm doing it the Bob Flowerdew way. He reckons watering them with weak seaweed feed every watering after transplanting . We only water from the bottom 

I will give that a go with the seaweed. Is there still time for onion seed?

If the compost is more than slightly damp don't water them with anything.... to use FBB you'd ahve to repot.... dunno... I grow all my onions from seed adn I still get caught out overwatering them occasionally.... the other thing I do is take the tray out of its gravel tray and put a dry tray of sand under them to try adn pull some water out..