cover onion set ridges to control weeds

QuestionsHow to growVegetable GrowingBulb Onionscover onion set ridges to control weeds
sean reynolds asked 13 years ago

have been growing approx. 300 onion sets (white and red) successfully over many years. Weeds are now a major problem. Is there any type of ground cover on the market to keep the weeds covered, and say holes 6ins apart to allow sets to grow. For age and other reasons i have to reduce labour.

1 Answers

Gerry Daly Staff answered 6 years ago
You could use a sheet of black plastic to cover the soil, burying a strip around the edge to hold it down and some stones placed on it to keep it steady. Make it like a bed about two feet wide, or a broad ridge.

You could then punch out small holes and place a set within each.

There is a danger of the plastic moving over the set and preventing it from emerging, but if the plastic is well held, it will work. Later when the onion has made a shoot, push the plastic down so that the bulb will form over the plastic.

Rain will get down through the holes.

You could alternatively use a weed-free mulch such as pine needles to cover the soil between the sets.  Garden compost is too weedy for this purpose.

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