Downy Mildew

The picture is not of our onions, but it may as well have been. Ours got attacked by downy mildew when high heat hit our region and they never recovered. We are keeping pretty much anything with -cide out of our garden, so all commercial fungicides were immediately crossed off the list. We could have used powdered sulfur, but it would have affected the flavor of the onions. That and there's that whole thing about powdered sulfur mixing with water... It turns into sulfurous acid... bad juju. We have kids, bad juju is out. There is also a copper mixture, but there again is the "is it really good for you" thing rearing its ugly head. This is more for large-scale operations and for the tiny patch we had, the best solution was to pick them and put something else in its place.

What to look for:
For us, the leaves started to turn yellow and the tips withered. Some of the stalks bent at the top of the bulb and laid on the ground. The leaves developed spots and the necks turned soft. The necks in these were squishy, but not bent. In the mornings, there were purple-brown spots on the leaves. This is the fungus moving around. It tends to disappear as the sun gets more intense.

I don't count this so much as a failure, but as a learning experience. Our soil is different from that of our friends, by a vast degree. We live on the remnants of an old pecan orchard, so our soil, while sandy, is full of rich, organic matter. It's also full of fungi. We can grow beans, peppers, and potatoes like there is no tomorrow. Onions do not appear to be on that list. Next year, my onions will come from a local farm and I'm alright with that.