Do onions make flowers?

jymarino 6/17/2011, 10:22 pm

When I went outside this a.m. I noticed that two of my onions have these small white clusters on top of them. I've never planted onions before so I didn't know if these flower or not?

staf74 6/17/2011, 10:56 pm

Yes they do flower. Its a longer stalk with a whitish bulb on top that will eventually flower if left. Being a biennial plant (flowers on second year) you should not normally see this unless the plants is stressed. Most often the cause is wide temperature fluctuations. You can snip off the stalk but the bulb growth is done at that point and will not get bigger. You should harvest those and use them.

This link is good all round info for onions.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/Onions/oniongro.html

TN_GARDENER 6/18/2011, 8:33 am

staf74 wrote:Yes they do flower. Its a longer stalk with a whitish bulb on top that will eventually flower if left. Being a biennial plant (flowers on second year) you should not normally see this unless the plants is stressed. Most often the cause is wide temperature fluctuations. You can snip off the stalk but the bulb growth is done at that point and will not get bigger. You should harvest those and use them.

This link is good all round info for onions.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/Onions/oniongro.html

yup. They say to harvest and use them. Guess you can also get seeds for next year's crop (or this Fall).

HouseofWool 6/18/2011, 8:14 pm

Crud - it looks like some of my onions have put up flower shoots even though they have been in the ground just over a month. We have had some crazy temperature fluctuations with a 50 degree swing in a single week.

**WardinWake** 6/18/2011, 8:52 pm

HouseofWool wrote:Crud - it looks like some of my onions have put up flower shoots even though they have been in the ground just over a month. We have had some crazy temperature fluctuations with a 50 degree swing in a single week.

Howdy:

Some of my onions and all of my leeks have set flower. The leeks are from last fall's planting that awoke after the winter was over. Some onions also came back from last fall's planting. Other onions are small bulb type that we purchased from the produce aisle in the supermarket. All of those sprouted and are growing good green tops.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

HouseofWool 6/19/2011, 6:42 pm

I figure I am just going to leave them for a bit. I snipped off the bud on each plant. But at this point, they are only slightly larger than the sets I planted. Oh Wisconsin's fickle springs how I loathe thee...

FarmerValerie 6/20/2011, 8:50 am

Count the cooler weather as a blessing, our high today is 101, tomorrow we have a cold front going through, the high is 92, and every morning I have to go out and hand pick squash bugs, the chickens love it, but I am tired of going out every single morning (except Sunday) to pick bugs. We may have longer growing seasons here, but as brought up on a couple of threads here, our bugs are straight out of a sci-fi movie. I cannot remember the last time it rained.

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