Onions and a bit of mould!

Hi all,

Well I planted some onion sets in seed trays in early January - both red and white. Put them in the greenhouse and almost all have now set roots and fired up green shoots. I did get a touch of mould on them, a consequence of a bit of over watering and a few days of sunshine in Mid Jan. Some surface mould appeared on the actual set (bulb?) but they seem to have continued on undaunted. Went to plant some out yesterday but the set/bulb on a lot of them is soft/hollow? They don't feel squelchy inside and the shoots still seem healthy but don't want to waste time planting out 50 onions if they are in the first stages of failing! Do they sound ok?!?

Many thanks,

MrM

 

Sorry, I mis read the post when I first looked at it, thought you'd grown them from seed.

The energy stored in the sets will be going into root & new leaf growth so they will go a bit soft.

 

It doesn't sound promising, I wouldn't chance it....

 

More to the point what is the root system like?

I agree with Zigs but then again there is soft and there is soft!

As you say the tops are healthy, so if the root ball is quite large then you might be OK but if the root system is poor then I think you have answered your own question.

What might be worth while is buy a pack of setts as back up and plant these alternately with your existing ones. Then if you find the original ones rot off, you can pull them out and allow more space for the new ones!

If they don't rot off then you have got a bonus!

But I think you need some form of backup or else you might end up with nothing!

 

Thanks all. The root systems are generally good Tee Gee and they don't feel mouldy or 'mushy' inside. Good shout though with the alternate planting I had started another set off just in case but will plant those out as said and see how we go.

Cheers Zigs was on the verge of throwing them all in the bin so you gave them a second chance! Will keep you posted on how we fare! The second batch were Red Baron and Electric from Poundland. Go on guess the price for a packet of about 50. £1 a pack, amazing that Poundland!!