one little onion starting to flower?

chocolatepop on 5/27/2010, 8:38 am

I think i have an onion sending up a flower bud. What do I do? I know its not time to pull it, but I don't know what else to do.

The weather has been strange which is what I think sent it up. Went from hot(70s), to cold (40-50s), to hot (70s) cold (50s), back to hot (90s)

So... yank it?

Retired Member 1 on 5/27/2010, 9:05 am

Onions are usually biennials and flower the second year. But all mine went to seed this year. It is due to wild temperature fluctuations as you mention. From my reading that means they will not keep well, which is a disappointment as I planted enough to have most of the summer (or so I thought). The experts seems divided as to whether it helps to cut the flower off or not. I did. The onions are reaching full size and I've pulled a few, so they didn't seem to be harmed by flowering a year early. I guess I'll freeze most of mine to use in recipes, but I surely was looking forward to all those lovely sweet onions for fresh use.

chocolatepop on 5/27/2010, 9:11 am

belfrybat wrote:Onions are usually biennials and flower the second year. But all mine went to seed this year. It is due to wild temperature fluctuations as you mention. From my reading that means they will not keep well, which is a disappointment as I planted enough to have most of the summer (or so I thought). The experts seems divided as to whether it helps to cut the flower off or not. I did. The onions are reaching full size and I've pulled a few, so they didn't seem to be harmed by flowering a year early. I guess I'll freeze most of mine to use in recipes, but I surely was looking forward to all those lovely sweet onions for fresh use.

well poop. I just searched and found the same information. It is only one onion as of now.

Lavender Debs on 5/27/2010, 9:25 am

Mine were prone to doing that if I used sets instead of seeds. I just pinched off the pods. They were sweet onions though so if you are growing storage onions.......ignore me.

chocolatepop on 5/27/2010, 9:27 am

Lavender Debs wrote:Mine were prone to doing that if I used sets instead of seeds. I just pinched off the pods. They were sweet onions though so if you are growing storage onions.......ignore me.

They were supposed to be storage onions, but i guess no more.

So just pinch the flower off and let it keep growing?

Lavender Debs on 5/27/2010, 9:50 am

That is what I did with SWEET onions. This is the first year I have ever grown anything else besides chives and leeks. But, yes, I pinched off the pod because I did not want the energy of the plant to go toward seeds. But I am a dumb-luck gardener soooooo

chocolatepop on 5/27/2010, 3:15 pm

Humm, well these aren't sweet onions, they are red or yellow. SO CONFUSING Wink

**WardinWake** on 5/27/2010, 4:49 pm

chocolatepop wrote:Humm, well these aren't sweet onions, they are red or yellow. SO CONFUSING

Howdy: I planted white and yellow sets as well. Many have put up seed/flower pods. I did not pinch these off so I don't know what will become of them. We have been snipping off the green tops to cook/eat fresh as well as pulling a few to eat. I rarely do anything small so I planted a full 4X4 with 16 per square along with nasturtiums and squash. The nasturtiums and squash are not doing as well as I expected so I may have overdone the whole box. Time will tell.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

chocolatepop on 5/27/2010, 7:48 pm

haa haa Ward, you sound like me. So far I have abour 6-8 1ft squares and 10 or so more squares of starts/sets to plant in this weekend. I am behind because our last boxes can't be built because a tree removal guy backed out... twice and that is where my new garden will

hookilau on 6/10/2010, 7:45 am

really?! O boy!!!
This is the first time I'm growing onions. I started my onion as sets in my sfg, but then read about how I could plant the root end of any old supermarket onion and snip the tops for use (we like 'em in salads).

So I have the supermarket onion bottoms growing in a container on my patio (really it was an experiment that happily produced). Though I was planning to cut these, how much can I cut from my sfg onions and not harm the production of the bulbs?

Can I shear them and they will send up more shoots or should I not do that and trim more selectively?

Retired Member 1 on 6/10/2010, 9:39 am

hookilau wrote: really?! O boy!!!
This is the first time I'm growing onions. I started my onion as sets in my sfg, but then read about how I could plant the root end of any old supermarket onion and snip the tops for use (we like 'em in salads).

So I have the supermarket onion bottoms growing in a container on my patio (really it was an experiment that happily produced). Though I was planning to cut these, how much can I cut from my sfg onions and not harm the production of the bulbs?

Can I shear them and they will send up more shoots or should I not do that and trim more selectively?

The definitive answer to your question is: it depends.

If you want your sfg onions to grow into nice large bulbs, don't trim the greens at all except to cut off the seed stalk if it sends one up. If your supermarket onion quits supplying you with enough green tops, then you might want to designate a couple of "sacrificial onions" to use for the tops. The very best thing to do next year is to plant some bunching onions to use as green tops. They make a very small bulb that can be also eaten, but are really grown for the green tops.

hookilau on 6/10/2010, 10:06 am

That's just what I wanted to know!

I think I'll just trim my supermarket onions as needed but let my sfg onions bulb to their little heart's content.

I've seen bunching onion seeds (look just like the scallions in the supermarket) but heard that it hard to grow onions from seed so I went with sets.

Apparently whomever said it was difficult wasn't a sfg'er

cause it sure seems no one else seems to be having a hard time at it.

I think I'll go ahead and pick up that seed pack next time I see it and have at it.

Thanks again

Megan on 6/11/2010, 6:51 pm

Hm. I bought seed for bunching onions and planted it, but apparently I thought it was weeds when it came up because I think I ripped them all out, either that or they didn't come up!

But I realized just yesterday that I have over 70 onions sets planted in my SFGs, in 3 varieties yellow & white. I didn't plan it that way, to be honest, and there is not a single square dedicated to onions, but I have scattered them around in companion plantings. First I bought about 9, then about 16 more... then, much later, I bought a sack of 50. Planted a few of those, forgot about them, and then last week got paranoid about SVB and planted ALL of them, concentrating around the curcurbits. Guess we will have onions this year, LOL!!

I have clipped a few onion tops but pretty much just letting them grow. And there is one plant sending up a bud now. Thanks to this thread, I now know to clip it, too.

one little onion starting to flower?

one little onion starting to flower?

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you mean I can snip the green tops?

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