Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi All

Today at least 6 of my onions are beginning to flower. I nipped the
flower off but wondered is this a sign that they are ready? In the
past I have just nipped out the flowers but when harvested there
was a hard shaft in the middle and they wouldn't store as this
softened and rotted.

They are a good size with a pappery outer but growth is still very
green with no sign of yellowing.

Westi

Your onions must have had a shock of sorts in the past, probably you planted them out when it was still too cold, because onions are biennials and flowering occurs when the onions 'think' winter has already happened. I would start using the flowering ones straight away because they certainly won't keep.

Hi Westie, I was watering my onions today as they are getting really quite dry. We have had very little rain since February. There were three with tiny little seed heads which I have nipped off, I am hoping I have done this soon enought.

Once an onion has started flowering, that's it. Taking off the small flower head will not get the onions growing again, so you might as well eat them.

Hi Alan my onions aren't big enough to fill a sandwich never mind use for cooking. I think it was due to lack of water whilst we were away for a week and a half in May we had no rain at all. We really are having a bad time with rain at the moment as our local reservoirs are extremely low now. We are off to get some more waterbutts for our plot.

Quite a few of my onions have started to flower, despite regular watering. I planted them as sets rather than from seed and don't know whether this has speeded up the process. The bulbs have hardly started to swell at all so I'm thinking of pulling them all up as I guess that once a few start flowering, the rest will probably follow pretty quickly as they were all planted at the same time. Might as well use the space for something else.

shallots and onions flowering too, ah well like you, I could use the space !

Try heat treated sets next year.

Hi Westi,
Why not have a crack at growing from seed next year. I have never had any problems with growing this way and the choice of variety is massive whereas only a few ever get made into sets. By using only sets you are missing some really superb onions.
JB.

which do you recommend Johnboy, and are yours autuimn planted or spring?

Hi NB,
Mine are winter sown (Boxing Day adventure!) for summer production but I believe that Geoff or John may grow the autumn sown varieties for overwintering. The winters here are too harsh and although Geoff's elevation is a hundred feet higher than mine I suspect that he is not that far from the sea which means that he will not get the harsh, persistent frosts the I experience here.
I have tried winter onions a couple of times here but they have never really given me what I would call a crop a very hit and miss affair.
I suspect that in Sussex winter onions would do very well.
Growing from seed would give you, an organic gardener, a very large varietal list to work from.
I am very relieved that the bug you found was not a vine weevil.
I just shows what crossed fingers are capable of!
JB.

Several of my seed grown onions have just put up flower heads - I gather from the above that they should be used and not stored - OK. But what about the others in the row - can I assume that this is likely to happen along the row, and if so, can I harvest them now, a little prematurely to try and get some to store? I was hoping to leave them until the end of the month or into September to let them swell more, but I guess this burst of summer has forced them into flowering.