'You won't find an onion that hasn't experienced anything'

The picture in Zeeland shows how extreme this sowing and planting season is. CZAV advisor Bram de Visser saw both an onion harvester and a planting machine driving in one day. "It involved winter onion sets that were lifted and second-year onion sets that were still going into the ground," he explains. "Previously there was simply no option to plant. If you have the planting material in the shed and have incurred some of the costs, the decision is made to plant anyway."

Also read: Seed onions are very variable this season.

Onion sets fair to good
The onion sets that were able to go into the ground in time, at the end of January and beginning of February after the wafer-thin bit of frost that winter 2023/24 experienced, are also in reasonable condition on average. There are some doubts about the quality, but the harvest has yet to start. At the end of March there was another chance to plant, but this was not always successful, especially in Zeeland. It got wet there and actually still is.

Huge differences are noticeable in sowing onions. Actually just like potatoes. Where growers were able to get into the field on time, a nice crop of onions has emerged, but late sowing in particular (early to mid-May) has many problems. "We see a lot of plant loss due to the bean fly in these plots, spread across the Netherlands and Belgium," says Kees Jacobs of Syngenta. "2023 was not an easy year, but 2024 is even more difficult. It is especially on the late-sown plots, where the onions now have two or three tubes, where plants die due to insect damage." 

Missing Vydate
Early sowing was possible in places in Drenthe and Groningen, but sometimes the stand was thinned out by the bean fly. Delphy advisor Bert Huizinga sees this. "In the past, this insect was not such a big problem, but partly due to the disappearance of Vydate, this is now the case. You miss the side effect of this drug. Alternatives such as NemGuard or Belem simply do not have a comparable effect. Counts of The Green Fly have shown that the pressure of the onion and bean fly was very high early in the season. Unfortunately, this costs a lot of plants."

Arjan Bos from Hazera, who is also active in the Northern Netherlands, sees similar scenes. "Sometimes it looks very nice from the road, but just walk into a plot like this and it is often disappointing. The fact is that the crop condition is very variable. Perhaps the most beautiful plots are on the clay soil in the Oldambt. to the west, towards Friesland, then it is not easy. A lot of water has fallen on the Hoogeland. We know that you need twenty plants per meter for a good yield. "

In addition to high insect pressure, Bos also encounters pythium, rhizoctonia and fusarium in onions. "Low-oxygen soil promotes the development of fungi. Not all growers have had the opportunity to loosen the soil. If this is possible, we recommend it, but you have to be careful not to damage the root system."

Fertilize
Due to the abundant rainfall, onion crops have a weak root system. Another disadvantage is that nutrients – especially in flooded places – have been washed away. The advisors therefore agree that additional fertilization is necessary to keep the crop going. "You're talking about 100 kilos of KAS," says Delphy advisor Niek Vedelaar. "We are almost at the longest day, which makes too much nitrogen dangerous," Bos adds. “Kali is perhaps even more important.”

While the difficult conditions in the field ensure a high market price for potatoes, this is certainly not the case for onions. The last barns with old harvest are finding their way with difficulty. Growers do offer batches of onion sets, but sorters are not eager. The gap between what the grower asks (€30 or more) and what the buyer offers (around €20) is far too big. Especially for winter onion sets, which have a slightly higher average price level. Occasionally a plot of land is being cleared, but here too the weather conditions throw a spanner in the works.