4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Snowy]

Because I had the beginnings of a very pretty allotment! If not - what do I do with them?

Although the question is really a bit late as I snipped all the flower heads off

Will I still get onions?

[theherd123]

Mine did this the year before last Snowy - so annoying!

 

I think you are meant to snip the heads off and pull them but im not 100% sure so best wait till a more experienced person comes along!

[Lesley]

I snip off any flower head as soon as I see it emerging.

 

The onion will still grow a bit more but it will have a thibk neck and won't store very well so just use those first. They are the ones i use green - straight from the garden without lifting and drying.

 

Some onions are more susceptible than others.

[Valkyrie]

I agree with Lesley - you will need to use up the onions that have flowered first - or freeze them when you harvest them. I found the red onions to be the worst offenders here.

[Snowy]

They aren't any bigger than when I planted them! Funnily enough the red onions are OK, it was the two kinds of brown onions that had flowered. Although the flowers were only very tiny buds, so hopefully they might grow a bit bigger yet!

What causes bolting? Could it be because they didn't get much water when they were first planted?

[Valkyrie]

Possibly, along with the hot dry weather just recently - they just want to go to seed. The chives were faster this year to flower. But it seems like everything is in a rush to get the summer over and done with after a slow start. They are hungry things, so give them a feed too. 2 lots of my winter onions are very slow, whereas the other one is all leafy and no bulb. Can't win sometimes.

[redhotchick]

I know the stem and bud of a shallot can be eaten. Often used in Thailand. Lovely stir fried with garlic.

Does anyone know if onion flowers stems can be eaten?

[Matthew]

Does anyone know if onion flowers stems can be eaten?

 

Yes

[chickencam]

My red onions have bolted again this year, not all of them but quite a few. The rest are all growing nicely. I must remember to take the buds off. I have an afternoon of onion weeding panned, I did about a third of them a couple of days ago and it took me nearly 2 hours We do grow a lot of onions

[Drew and Alan]

yeah, cut the flowers off as soon as they appear or the plant will put more energy in to flowering than growing a bigger onion bulb. u can eat the flowers but are nice once fully open. the stalk is tough but edible too. we got side tracked with friends staying this yr and lots of our onions went to flower, so have pulled them all up and planted new ones!

[majorbloodnock]

Don't forget to leave one or two, though, since that'll allow you to harvest some onion seed for next year.

[Valkyrie]

I have to say that the onion seed (that actually bothered to germinate) has done quite well so far compared to sets. I think I will try again with seed next year. Although the Japanese winter onion sets have done really well - the reds I won't ever bother with again.

[sjp]

normally expect to lose about 50% of red onions from sets to bolting

best to grow red onions from seed

bolting early is more often than not due to lack of water

[chickencam]

I may have a go with seed next year because red onions drive me mad. How long do they take to grow, because spring onions take forever. I have been using red spring onions that were sown last spring this year.

 

We have tried taking the flowers off this year to see if they will continue to grow a bit more. We just use the bolted ones first usually.

[Valkyrie]

Well the only onion seeds that did well were Heritage seed. The others were sporadic and weedy and took forever. The Heritage ones have been planted with the toms and look really healthy, although no bulb at the moment.

[sjp]

How long do they take to grow, because spring onions take forever.

they don't take much longer than sets.

mine will need to be picked or covered by September becauce of the Allium leaf miner also meens I don't plant Witsun any ealier they have to be covered