Garden onions

David G · Jun 9, 2015

I am growing onions to be harvested as big round ones, they are not mature and going to seed. Should I pick the buds off them, or not worry.

john in la · Jun 9, 2015

A cool wet spring makes them bolt.

You have two choices now.
Dig them up or cut off the flower stalk and leave them in the ground.

Leavening them in the ground does no good as they will not get bigger
Digging them up does no good as they will not store as well as big onions.

So you dig up some now and use them
And leave some in the ground so you will have some later.

DO NOT let them stay in the ground till the top browns like you would normally do.
They will rot or turn woody.
You could dig them all up and freeze them.

David G · Jun 9, 2015

would I cut the top of the stalk off, or the whole stalk?

So they are done growing?

john in la · Jun 9, 2015

You can cut the top of the stalk off OR if the stalk is rather thick cut the whole stalk off.
You are trying to stop the bulb from expelling energy into producing seed.

Yes I would say they are done growing.
No use in drying them down as they will not store well. They will rot.
They will still taste good as they are but you will need to chop them up and freeze them to store them.

If some of them have not bolted leave them in the ground as they will continue to grow.

wolfman · Jun 9, 2015

It might be a little late for this, but if you want large onions, push the tops over flat to the ground. You might have to push them over and go back in a few days and re-push them down.

JD Seller · Jun 9, 2015

The cooler spring is making things mature faster. Grass is headed out 2-3 weeks earlier than normal.

teddy52food · Jun 9, 2015

If I did that, they would stop growing for sure. Onions need lots of nitrogen. And water. And no weeds.

Dave in Tx · Jun 9, 2015

I just cut the bloom off. A friend talked me into cutting the top half off, but they didn't grow as much as the ones I left. The onions I left got like softballs in size.

Eldon (WA) · Jun 9, 2015

(quoted from post at 18:24:12 06/09/15) I am growing onions to be harvested as big round ones, they are not mature and going to seed. Should I pick the buds off them, or not worry.

Pull the ones that are going to seed, clean them up and dehydrate them. They will be very sweet, bag them up in ziplocks and use in soups later on. They will store for a couple of years that way. You can also run them through a food processor and freeze them. Some years we have a lot, some years none....but we find a way to sell or use them either way.

Once an onion flops it will stop growing and needs to be pulled. That is when we know it is time to harvest. We pull the floppers and sell them as fresh onions until they get ahead of us, then we pull everything, let lay in the field 2-3 days, then load up the hayracks and back them in the barn to cure.

okierob · Jun 9, 2015

Teddy52ford, That is an old wives tale and the last thing you want to do. If you push the top over , the onion stops sending new leaves up and the bulb will not grow any larger without more leaves.

okierob · Jun 9, 2015

David G, once an onion send up the seed head it is done growing. Removing the seed head will not force it to grow bigger, It just uses more energy to send up another seed head.

Onions can be tricky to grow some years. They do not like big temperature swings. They are biennial and send up seed heads when they think they are in their second year. Going from cool days and nights to warm days and back to cool fools them into thinking it is time to send seed heads out.

For each leaf in the tops , will be a ring in the onion bulb. few leaves will make small bulbs. Nothing will make large onions if they don't have the tops to feed the bulb.

Garden onions

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