onion mildew (neck rot)

[charlesModerator]

 Does anybody suffer this disease yet in 2011?

Touch wood, my onions are healthier than for many years, no mildew at all. I wonder if it is the weather, or because my soil is clean of the spores after I stopped growing over-wintering Japanese onions three years ago, also I have not bought any onion sets this year, all grown from seed.

[Pete BuddParticipant]

Hi Charles,

I suffer mainly white rot on my onions and can lose upto 50% inc the ones that don`t survive storage, However; I am growing a lot from seed now and find that they are much less affected. Growing from sets seems an easy option but its not that difficult growing from seed.

Pete

[charlesModerator]

 This is interesting Pete, I wonder if sets are carrying more disease than we realise.
My seed grown onions are superb this year and no mildew!

[bluebellParticipant]

Last week my overwintered spring onions were infected, so I cleared them and checked my other over wintered onions which were ok. Today they were not. About half all up one end have it. I have cleared these for immediate use, should I clear the rest?

It is the first time these beds have had onions in them for at least 3 years as it is in part of the allotment that I have only taken over in the past year and it was unused for at least 2 years prior to that. Should I stop growing onions in the bed or plot?

[charlesModerator]

 Bad luck Bluebell, I guess the recent rain and damp triggered it but also this is why I have stopped growing autumn planted onions, because if they do get it, all the spring planted onions can be infected too.

So it is more related to time of planting and weather than what is in the soil, although that plays a part. I would plant in spring next year and you have a good chance of succeeding.

For anyone reading who doesn’t know, onion mildew is specific to onions and does not infect other plants. It has become more common because, I thing, of autumn planting. A difficulty is if other allotment holders plant in autumn as their mildew can spread to nearby onions in damp weather.

[bluebellParticipant]

Thanks Charles
Will it be worth planting out leeks? I know they are late and was in 2 minds as to if it would be worth while anyway but I assume the less alliums I have planted out the less chance of it being around next year?

[charlesModerator]

 You are fine with leeks, garlic, everything except onions! Other alliums neither harbour onion mildew nor suffer from it.

[d003kkMember]

I don’t know if this is useful info but it helped for me.

It was my first year growing shallots from Aldi (Golden Gourmet, Red Sun) As you would expect they were super cheap, but I notice some white mould growing on some of them.

So I planted my shallots first in pots in the green house, when it came to planting time I gave each shallot a good tug. The duds came out very easily (I don’t even compost these as that might spread the contagion).

The other advantage is that the I don’t get nasty gaps in my rows, due to fatalities.

I plan on saving the biggest shallots for growing next year, and I shall be repeating this process.

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