ONIONS

[WILDCHERRY]

Well we started the veg plot! Rotovated in a dumper load of well rotted manure (we wont mention the 5 hours it took to get the manure to the land, as the dumper tipped over on the way up the hill!) Planted 200 onions! Might have been a little over zealous as they took up 1/3 of the whole rotovated area - and we have plans to plant around another 30 crops!! (luckily we still have masses of land, that just needs preparing!). Anyway point is, on completing the planting and sitting down for a well earned rest I opened my marks and spencer gardening guide and first thing i read was onions dont like recently manuered land! Oooops maybe should have read it first! Anyone got any idea how it will impact my onions?

[Citrine]

No idea, maybe it will make them all leggy and possibly 'bolt'??? Let us know the outcome, anyway!

[lancashire lass]

I wouldn't worry too much about it - I've put manure down for a bed of onions before now and had no problem. I think it is if the ground is constantly wet eg typical British winter, then the contact of manure on the bulb may cause rotting. My soil is heavy clay so to be fair I now dig a little trench and line it with a layer of sand and place the sets on the sand before covering.

You said it was well rotted as opposed to fresh, so again it should be okay. If you are concerned and only just planted the onions and they haven't rooted yet, why not move some of them to an area which is not manured and do a comparison? It is important if roots have appeared, not to push the bulb into the soil as you want to avoid damaging the base.

[AnnaB]

WILDCHERRY
I would go along with lancashire lass. You have planted 200...last year by mistake I planted nearly 500 and then found that they were not for storing (japanese sets) I let them grow and harvested them drying them off in the conservatory. I did as someone suggested on here to get cardboard boxes like the ones used for tomatoes and stack them (ended up with 12 boxes). I think we harvested in June and I am now on my last box. They have kept really well.
I did make lots of soup at first to freeze and preserve them - this has proved unnecessary. This year there are only 150.....

[WILDCHERRY]

Thanks for the advice! I've a few spare ones which i'll plant in unmanuered soil and let you know how i get on! The ideas for storage are great too! Thanks!