Why onions flower

Thanks for the post! And then I always wondered how people got seeds from onions?! I love unintentional garden discoveries. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Written by Linda Ly. Which made me wonder… What causes some onions to flower while others do not? Tia Robertson May 15, at pm. LOL Reply. Lisa M Gibson May 13, at am. Anastasia July 31, at pm. Tamra April 20, at pm. My Account Register. What is bolting? Why do onions and shallots bolt? How to avoid onions and shallots bolting.

What to do if your onions and shallots bolt. If you notice that the onion and shallots that you're growing have started to bolt, there's no need to panic; here are some tips to help: As soon as you see onions and shallots develop flower heads you should snip off the flower at the top of the stalk.

Or if the stalk is quite thick, snip it all off about 1 inch 2. Doing this stops the plant from wasting energy on making seeds.

Once you've snipped the flowers, the bulb can be left in the ground or harvested. Leaving them that long could cause the bulb to start to rot or become woody.

If some of your onions or shallots have bolted but others haven't, always harvest the bolted ones first. The un-bolted bulbs have a good chance of going on to reach full maturity and can be harvested later.

Bolted onions will keep for a week or so in the cupboard, but it's best to use them straight away while they're fresh. If there are too many to use within seven days, they can be chopped and frozen for future dishes. Unfortunately, something has been running amok in my garlic bed, knocking down plants so not sure how my harvest will do this year. Great report Kate!

Hope your garlic makes it ok in spite of the intruder. Our onions are doing great. They have seen much fluctuation in temperatures. We planted about onions and so far no bolts, but like I said, we planted late. It has been a strange year here…We had winter and then it jumped to Summer. So, will see how things go. As for elephant garlic, did you plant it in the spring or in the Fall? Also, if you have a mild winter, you will get one bulb.

This is due to the fact that elephant garlic actually has a 2 to 3 year span until maturity. I hope this helps. We plant small onions as bulbs rather than the living plants, as well as numerous varieties of onion seeds. This year the onions planted from bulbs are in a terrible condition, whereas the seed-grown plants look quite healthy and vigorous. I am considering digging under the rows of onions planted from bulb.

Stephanie , Good hearing from you. Sounds like your onions are doing great. Thanks for the additional input on elephant garlic. Hey Millard. Any particular reason you plant sets bulbs rather than transplants living plants? Hi Theresa, Thanks for the informative post. This year we tried direct sowing onion seeds into the ground.

Some of them came up close to each other. I want to thin some of them out. So, I was thinking of digging the whole bunch up and separating them. Then replanting them. It would disturb the roots though. What would you do? Good to hear from you Megan! Take up the whole bunch or as many as you think you can transplant in one session. As you go along, gently pull each seedling from the bunch and plant. Hope you are having a great season.

Let me know how things go. I just found your website while searching for onion seeds. Lots of great information!

I garden just south of Charlotte, NC, and we had a rollercoaster spring, weather wise, as well. Extra cold winter, unusually warm spring days followed by unusually cold spring days, etc…. Glad to know it was the weather and not me. Another thing, I decided to try fall planting this year, and bought some Candy transplants from my local garden center, planted them in October, covered with row cover, and not only did not one of them bolt, but the tops began falling last week, and they are big beautiful bulbs.

Any thoughts? Thanks Theresa. I look forward to your next post. Have fun gardening, Megan. My thoughts? Excellent that you are thinking outside the box and trying new things. You really hit on it with this one! And just for your information and anyone else reading , I grew Candy for years. The variety was owned by the company Seminis. Monsanto bought out Seminis and I will no longer buy anything that supports Monsanto — no matter how little.

Thus, I no longer grow Candy. For more information you may want to read this post and this one. For more garden planting ideas, check out my blog:. Or check out my Pinterest board for more ideas:.

Pots and planters. Pinterest Board. Related Posts. Alien September 28, at am - Reply. Austin Walsh May 22, at pm - Reply.