onions/leeks forming flowers...what next?

[freshfood]

Hi,

I had some onions and leeks that got shaded out last summer, so severely that they really didn't grow. I dug them anyway and they hung out on my enclosed back porch all winter. They sprouted this spring, to my surprise, so I stuck them back in the garden to see what would happen. The onions are forming flower balls on top of the stalks, the leeks have things that look like the top of a minaret. I know they're biennials, but I don't know what will happen next. Will they grow seed that I could save and plant next year? Or have I just wasted two rows of garden space? Can I eat the onions or leeks that are flowering/seeding?

I did plant leeks from seed and also onion sets this spring as usual, so it doesn't matter, I'm just curious what will happen and what I should do...I don't know the life cycle of the onion that well! Anyone?

 

[FarmerDenise]

If you let them flower, you should get seeds to plant next year. Onion seeds don't germinate well after one year though. You might also see if any of them have bulbed out, sometimes they don't. If you have good sized bulbs, you might want to remove the flower stalk so the energy goes into making onion not seeds. I would think it is similar for leeks.
Mine ended up making small onions, perfect for starts for next year or for pickling.

 

[COgirl]

I'm so glad someome asked this I keep forgetting to. I've never grown onions before so I had no clue, guess I'm off to cut the flowers off as I don't think I have bulbs yet. Thank you for the information :rainbow-sun

 

[bills]

I grow the "Evergreen Bunching" variety as one of my garden onions. The carry overs from last years seeds, have had seed flowers now for several weeks, but I continue to get new green onions for salads, etc., from the new ones that bunch off the original onion.

As to the other types I grow, such as Walla-Walla, yellow, and red, usually mature for harvest, before many have gotten seed heads.

Leeks I find, if left to go to seed are usually pretty tough eating, compared to the earlier harvest ones.

 

[big brown horse]

Thanks to this thread, my red onions will get bigger! I just whacked off the flower heads...can you eat them like garlic scapes?

 

[freshfood]

As I understand it, onions are biennial, and the flowering ones were in the ground last year, so this would be their second year, the one where they make flowers/seeds. I wasn't sure whether they had moved through their life cycle enough last year to grow the flowers, or whether they "thought" they were still first year onion sets! Obviously, they know how old they are. When I put them back in the ground this spring, I also planted new sets so I'd be sure of having some edible onions this year. I'm going to try to harvest the seeds from the flowering ones, see if they'll grow next spring. What fun!