Downy Mildew , Onions
 

I have found out about a problem I had with my Onions , I sprayed them today
But how will my crop be affected , will they recover ?. The tips of leaves
had shrivelled
and mildew on all old leaves , new growth is fine . It only appeared after
the last week of rain.
Andy

Downy Mildew , Onions
 

On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 20:20:35 +0100, "Drew & Sue"
wrote:

I have found out about a problem I had with my Onions , I sprayed them today
But how will my crop be affected , will they recover ?. The tips of leaves
had shrivelled
and mildew on all old leaves , new growth is fine . It only appeared after
the last week of rain.

It's a nasty sod, is downy mildew. By the time you see it the damage
has been done.
I've had it on my onions a couple of times, and whilst I did manage to
get some sort of a crop it was pretty poor - the onions never seem to
recover in spite of there being fresh, uncontaminated new growth.

Mind you, I grow organically, so all I had to combat the mildew was
fresh wood ash - which seemed to help a little.
If you've used a chemical you might have better recovery.

Standard advice is not to grow any onions on the same spot for a few
years.

Just out of interest - what's the spacing of your onions? I grow mine
on a deep bed, so they're quite close together. I've often wondered
whether this might be a contributory factor.

Regards, and commiserations,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk