Bolting onion sts.

[Shallot Man]

Some 40% of my Centurion onion sets have bolted.

[FredFromOssett]

Is that why you are Shallot Man and not Onion Man?

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Shallot Man, what a shame.....i think this is a big problem this year.

[Ricard with an H]

I had a similar problem last year with Red Barron and some garlic. This years garlic is better, so far. And I didn't bother with onions because I don't use enough so end up throwing soft onions away.

Spring onions that I had sown didn't emerge so I just sowed more and they always take ages to sprout here, is it me ?

What about shallots ? Are they worth growing for a light user? Certainly I use all the garlic I sow and just have enough left for next years crop.

I thought onions were supposed to be easy to grow but I bumped into two problems, rot and bolting.

[Clive.]

Have had more than usual of the Sturon bolt this year. Have pinched off the tops, to maintain the illusion.

Interestingly the sets were twice the size at purchase/planting than usual.

Clive.

[Westi]

Ditto Shallot Man, A

About 80% of my onion sets have flower stalks. I've nipped them off but it seems the stalks are the only thing that is getting bigger and the bulbs are remaining about the same size. All colors affected.

Lost a small batch of shallots on one bed as well. They just rotted & appear to have the tell tale white strands which I just hope isn't what I think it is. I may be lucky as they still seemed to be contained in the paper skin like they couldn't break out & the white was on inside with none in the surrounding soil but I dug out loads of soil around them just in case.

Westi

[Shallot Man]

Ricard with an H. Having grown shallots more years than I care to remember. Well worth growing, have never had any problems with them. I tend to start them in polystyrene drink pots on the shortest day. So give it a try.

[Ricard with an H]

Ricard with an H. Having grown shallots more years than I care to remember. Well worth growing,

Richard to you and thanks for recommending them as a crop, two reasons I asked. (1) Most of us only ever taste what we get to buy from supermarkets or stores that buy from mass-production so we never get to taste the real thing. As with carrots and spuds. (2) difficulty is important because us novices don't need multiple failures that would ultimately send us back to the dreaded mass produced produce.

Garlic is a good example, the stuff we buy in stores is mostly uninspiring and the same. I found it easy to grow and though I had a few problems with rot and bolting I changed my method of growing and rotated so this year all the plants are looking good. This always adds a little confidence.

Carrots are not easy to grow though worth the effort if you can deal with the problems though it may take two/three failures or a battle with the learning curve to get carrots right.

My first onion sets were red, they grew nicely, tasted exceptional and with few problems. Then I grew white onions, this introduced me to white rot and bolting. In both cases the remaining 50% of onions rotted in storage so I won't bother again until I had time to try other crops that may suit me better.

[Elaine]

Yes, a few of our have bolted too, more that usual. I'm thinking it's due to the inclement weather we've been having....lets face it, it hasn't been exactly warm the past couple of months! The poor onion probably thinks, hells bells, I'd better get my seeds sorted sharpish....

[Elaine]

Hello Richard. The onions which rotted in storage....did they have thick necks? I always sort through ours which are to be stored and use up the bulbs with thicker necks asap.

For some reason that I cannot remember...someone on here will be able to tell us...onions with thick necks do not keep well.

Don't give up on your onions..like everything else, home grown ones are so much better. Like Shallotman says...shallots are brilliant, no bother at all and you get so many per set, usually eight plus. We pickle a lot of ours. Yum!

[robo]

Thank you Elaine, you have just answered my problem, all my onions last year rotted in storage i dried them thoroughly tied them up in 6 seperate bunches and hung them in my garage they where all big thick necked beauties, ive had a few bolt this year but ive just pulled the pod off the top and hope for best ive also had a few splitting looks like i will be getting 2 small onions instead of 1 big one of some of them

[Ricard with an H]

Yes Elaine, it was someone on this forum that guided me to use up the thick necks first and yes it was the thick necks that didn't last long.

I'll perhaps grow some shallots next year, I'm still not very good with spring onions. Failure to germinate has been the problem so this last sowing is under a mini-polytunnel. Maybe I should call them eight foot cloches, they work very well.

Right now I planted out four French bean plants and I'm worried because it is cold today, I didn't want to risk the ten plants so six are on stand-bye and I'm going to sow more in pots tomorrow because my best-ever French beans last year didn't go in until end of June-ish and I was still picking in October.

robo. It's not just me then ? I have to admit that I never get my onions or garlic to look tidy and clean. They always look scruffy. Is it me ?

[snooky]

I have the opposite problem,my onion sets aren't bulbing up.They have been in the ground for two months or so and although there is plenty of leaf sprouting from them the bulb is only a little larger than when I put them in as a set and also they have made very little root.I have given them a good soaking when the ground has been dry but this has also encouraged the chickweed to take over and is a constant battle to keep under control.
My shallots are in the same piece of ground and they too haven't bulbed up,plenty of leaf and have divided but only into 3or4 bulbs and not the usual 8or9 from Yellow Gourmet.The onion sets are Sturon and a red and a white variety all bought from Wilko's.
The only answer I can think of is that it is a poor piece of ground.The patch they are on used to be the enclosed run for the hens which freeranged the site before I took it over and plant up.
If that is the case then plenty of home made compost and farmyard manure will be needed to build up the soil.
Brassicas are doing quite well and the potatoe haulms aren't as lush as I would like them to be so it might well be that there is no "guts" in the soil

[Monika]

Onions and shallots tend to bolt when they "think" it's their second year, being biennial plants, so they start flowering, as they would in their second year. I would think our rather cool spring was their winter, so that is why they are starting to set flowers - in their second year.

I use mostly overwintering onions, shallots and garlics and they are doing fine, the former just bulbing up now. The few summer onions I planted went in quite late, so they probably missed the spring cold spell, So far so good.

[Ricard with an H]

I
Brassicas are doing quite well and the potatoe haulms aren't as lush as I would like them to be so it might well be that there is no "guts" in the soil

What does "Potato haulms" mean? Is that the greenery ?

I did some poking about under the greenery of my PFA spuds today then got nevouse when I found lots of fresh roots growing away from the main plant. Having never grown potatoes before I really didn't know whether to expect small spuds or thes roots. It all looks big and healthy so maybe I need to wait for flowers ?

Growing your own is easy, eh ?