Ditto, White Lisbon, only a proportion come up, maybe 10%. I have two
theories. One is that slugs mow them down just as they pop their heads above
the soil, but clearly this hasn't happened to all of them.

The other theory is that I have clay soil, and despite mixing in compost and
doing a bit of sieving it's still not great stuff for little seedlings to
develop in, what with it being heavy and cold. I am working on raising the
organic content, and put clear plastic over it for two weeks at the
beginning of April to heat it up a little.

I have sown some White Lisbon in compost in the greenhouse as an experiment
and am watching to see what happens. In the years that I have succeeded
growing a few White Lisbon, they haven't usually turned into anything you'd
be proud of, something I again put down to clay soil, and perhaps infrequent
enough watering.

Andy.

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote in message
reenews.net...
my spring onions are always dreadful
I have some germinated in the greenhouse this year, but they're pathetic
little things so far


"Rob Barrett" wrote in message
...
My veg did quite well last year and is off to a reasonable start this
year. The one obvious non-performer is the spring onions (white lisbon).
Very few germinate and the ones that did last year never developed to be
more than a mm or two around (both greens and bulbs). Any idea what I'm
doing wrong?

thanks,
Rob