Recently planted onions dying

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farmingnoob
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Recently planted onions dying

Post by farmingnoob »

It's my first time planting onions. I picked up some seed starts (look like thin green onions) at my local home center and used a pre cut black mulching sheet.

About half of the onions appear to have died. They have dried up completely.

Could this be due to too much or not enough water? Or maybe the soil has no nutrients?

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Recently planted onions dying

Post by Zasso Nouka »

The most likely reason is improper storage at the home centre, hard to say for sure without seeing them but from what I've experienced from home centre bought onion slips that would be my best guess. Unfortunately home centres often don't treat onion slips properly and store them incorrectly for too long.

I've found Shinshin (しんしん) and some Taneyasan's (seed shops) give them good care, ideally each bunch needs to be wrapped in newspaper and kept slightly moist to keep the roots alive and they need to be sold and planted within a few days of arriving at the seed shop. Anything over about 3 - 5 after arriving can result in significant losses. even professional seed shops can have problems if their supplier gets delayed. So finding a good supplier and sticking with them is key. Shinshin and most seed shops will take reservations and phone you once they arrive (you should plan for around the end of October).

Another point is that timings are critical to stop the onions from bolting in the spring. The timing for seeding can be as small as a single week, any earlier or later can result in bolting in the spring. The time for transplanting is a bit more flexible but is still generally down to a week or two.

This year I've hedged our bets and bought 1/4 of our crop from Shinshin for a guaranteed harvest and grown the other 3/4 of the crop from seed. The slips we grew from seed will be transplanted next week.

Although it's a bit late you could probably still plant some Garlic bulbs. If you still want onions Komeri (mostly Power komeri but maybe ordinary ones) sell onion bulbs starting in February that will give onions by late May, if planted right away. Any later and you run the risk of getting too deep into the rainy season which can rot the bulbs.

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Re: Recently planted onions dying

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Just to give you an idea here is what onion slips should look like when purchasing

Image

farmingnoob
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Re: Recently planted onions dying

Post by farmingnoob »

Thank you. They definitely didn't look that good!

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