Something is moving my onion sets

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HooTOwl Beaverton, OR May 01, 2009

I set out the onions in 2 long straight rows - the next day they are scattered and upside down, but none are missing. I put them back and it happens again. I place a chicken wire cover about an inch above them, and it happens again! This has been going on for 10 days now, and I have yet to see the culprits or outwit them. The sets are not moved very far, never more than a foot, but from one day to the next, nearly half of them are displaced. Meadow mice? sparrows? crows? squirrels?

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CountryGardens Lewisville, MN(Zone 4a) May 01, 2009

Robins & Gaggles are doing that. Replant them & make sure none of the little dried up leaves are exposed. The birds think they are worms. I learned this many years ago when the same thing happened to me.
Bernie

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crazyfish3 Pensacola, FL May 01, 2009

Well I now know that you have met the elusive one eye, one armed, purple onion puller. Try clipping the tops of the onions to 2 inches and rasing the wire if you can a little higher so the bird cant't grab it.

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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) May 01, 2009

Did you actually use sets or did you use plants? Nightcrawlers are notorious for pulling young onion plants and pulling the tips into the ground. Drying onion plants are one of their favorite foods.

Edited to add http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/allium/msg0415053725885.html

This message was edited May 1, 2009 7:05 PM

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CountryGardens Lewisville, MN(Zone 4a) May 02, 2009

I don't know about all that chatter on that link, but I sat & watched the birds pull the onions out.
Today we found some of our plants pulled out. Deer tracks were right there, so we know who the culprit is.
Bernie

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HooTOwl Beaverton, OR May 03, 2009

Thanks everybody, it appears your guesses go to birds. Yes, I planted sets - the top half of each bulb is exposed above the soil because I want to grow dry onions that I can store. I know there is a pair of song sparrows under the nearby berry vines that loves to forage in my garden, and perhaps I focused their attention on my onion patch by spreading grass clippings between the rows to keep the mud off my shoes. So now I have 3 layers of wire about 1 1/2 inches apart, and my garden (guardian?) owl is tied to a nearby post. Tomorrow we will see the effect of that. So far, only 3, of probably 80, sets are growing at all. It really doesn't help them to get uprooted every day or two.

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