I have used newspaper, shredded newspaper, shredded office paper, pine shavings, southern cedar shavings, oak chips and spent mushroom dirt. newspaper can blow easily and just doesn't look good. It can also make paper mache. It works though. Lots of independent tests show shredded office paper equal to or superior to the best comercial mulches. It has done very well for me. Spent mushroom dirt raises the ground level, but does little to stop insects or weeds. It is easy to weed though. Wood shavings look the best, stop lots of problems, but they crank the PH down. I add agricultural crushed limestone to buffer the acid and the onions seem to do well. Paper is almost entirely carbon hydrogen and oxygen. Wood shavings and chips provide a more ballanced diet, if you can get past the PH issues. Fresh wood shavings are not generally recomended, but I have used them with reasonable success. http://ojas.ucok.edu/01/papers/bfimple01.htm http://organic.tfrec.wsu.edu/OrganicIFP/OrchardFloorManagement/MulchTalk01Web.PDF

hi ms nature, I picked Copra because it keeps extremely well; so it will still be solid to plant early next spring. I do not expect that either Copra or Ailsa Craig would be hardy this far north; so I don't intend to plant my sets this fall. I would have some doubts that Ailsa Craig would keep long enough to get to next spring, but I know that Copra will, since I have done this before - replanting small Copra bulbs to grow on another year; I have not had a bolting problem from them yet either. You might have to plant the Ailsa Craig sets under lights, if they sprout too early which is actually quite likely. I would not expect them to winter over from a fall planting as far north as your and my gardens are, unless we have an exceptionally mild, snowy, and short winter. The key is as early as you can work your garden and plant as shallow as possible. Here in Minneapolis, I have squirrels that bury peanuts and walnuts in newly dug earth; so I cover newly planted beds with chicken wire, until there is a good sprout, and the bed has settled. I intend to also plant my multipliers next spring too. I know that works because that was done in my mother's garden, too, for decades.

It might happen if the wild onions have already flowered and set seed. Otherwise, no, it shouldn't be a problem. We have wild onions in some of our pastures and when I mow them in spring, I add those clippings (before the onions flower) to my garden mulch and I don't have a problem with wild onions popping up in the garden.

The bulbs need air and sunlight. Mulching next to the plant is not recommended. In most cases onions do not handle mulching very well, onions like to have their tops exposed to the air. Mulching also increases the risk of the bulbs rotting.