Onions are Bolting

[ninnymary]

Well now I'm worried. Last year I planted Walla Walla onions from sets and they did great. This year I planted yellow onions from bulbs and they look really good. They are planted in full sun.

I know onions are supposed to be ready for harvest when they flop over but mine usuall have one stalk floped over from when they start growing.

I've noticed that they are starting to grow the flower stalk so I pulled one to see how big it was. It was the size of a small leek.

Do I leave them in and allow the flower stalk to grow? Won't this cause them to go to seed? Do I harvest them after the flower grows? What do I do with them? I want nice size regular onions. I don't want scallions or leek size ones!

Mary

 

[lesa]

I have occasionally had an onion form a flower- I just remove the flower and the onion develops normally. Of course, your temps are so much hotter than mine- not sure if my experience applies!

 

[journey11]

Mine did that last year, over half of them sending up bloom stalks. I pinched them off just as quick as I found them and they did continue to develop into pretty good sized bulbs. The ones that didn't bolt seemed to form bulbs a little bit larger. Thing is though, these will not keep quite as long in storage (but long enough). Just be sure when you harvest them to use those onions up first.