On Fri, 8 Apr 2011 Vicky wrote:

Ditto that. Perhaps one in every fifty onions gets relocated by the
birds - and there is no shortage of birds here! Apparently the oldsters
trick is to trim off the top dead bits of onion sets prior to planting
them so the birds aren't tempted to pull them. That is probably less
hassle than setting them in plug trays. Personally I just plant them so
the tip is barely out of the ground. By the time they've rooted and
start to grow the tops of the bulbs soon appear above the surface of the
ground anyway - which I gather is important to help them ripen.

Actually, maybe my success is due to the fact that I rarely remember to
plant my onion sets until they have a huge chunk of green sticking out of
the top. :-)

Here's something to make you laugh.

I bought a string bag of onion sets in France the other week. There must
have been around fifty to a hundred in the bag. I left them overnight on
the floor.

Next morning my wife saw them and thought, "Oh good, David's already
planted some of them," but didn't think to mention it to me. In fact I
didn't get round to planting them the day after that, by which time
there were just *four* (yes four!!) sets left in the bag.

Wretched mice! I looked all around to see if I could find where they'd
stored them but to no avail. Silly me, I knew we'd got mice because last
time they nicked my chocolate from my desk drawer! All of it!

Moral: don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today. Next time,
I'm taking the cats!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk