Onions

hi

we planted some organic green onions that went bad in the frig...they have grown great!!.....i just said the other day to my children and hubby that we needed to cut the tops off and use them in our dinner.....well....went out today and they have shot up some flowers well not yet a flower but a flower pod..... not sure how long the flowers have been up...but..i didnt notice it a couple of days ago....so...my question is....can we still just cut the tops off and eat them and leave the bottoms to continue to grow?.....will they taste any differnt because they have bolted like other plants do?.....can we let some continue to flower and save seeds since it was an organic green onion?

same with the chives.....they came back from last year....but they have already sent up flowers too....

thanks

hugs

rose

I as well thought i had done something wrong. I double checked the plant to harvest info on the package. Yep i had read it before i bought it, Onion's take a great deal of time to get to harvest point. I have fine green shoots all over the place showing my green onions. They seemed to have come up over night then put there feet up and nothing. Still green though. My bulb onions have shown themselves as of yet, but i am not looking for a harvest until fall.

Good luck !

Marietta mike

I'm not terribly good with onions, either. However, I'm told you are supposed to plant according to where you live.

If you noticed that I am from Louisiana. i was raised on cajun cooking, so if you know anything about our cooking, you know that as a part of our cooking basics we always use green onions as part of our seasoning. We mostly saute our seasoning, and either add it to the main ingredient or add the ingredient to the sauted seasoning. Along with the green onion we will also add a regular bulbed onion together for seasoning. Since my onions are starting to seed, and are not making bulbs, I was wondering if the tops could also be used as seasoning. Never have tried the stems on a bulbed onion. I would hate to waste good seasoning.

Sadly,THIS part of my garden has not yet been Mel Mixedized. I am working on that part as I can get to it. I did manage to get some compost and manure mix with regular dirt, best I could do for now. The ph is right, tho. The parts of my garden with MM is growing fantasticly. I planted the onions in March. We have had an unseasonably warm winter this time. My potato plants that I planted in early March are making potatoes,(Youcan Gold) about the size of softballs. The plants are still green and growing, some three feet tall. We are digging a few anyway and eating them.

I am going to dig up all the onions and try replanting. I hope the weather does not hinder. It can get really hot here with a lot of humidity. We have already had temps in the 90s. I really appreciate all your comments, which are very helpful, and useful. Thanks. Keep them coming and I will keep reading.

Hey Bud, do you still have the package from the onion seed? By looking at your photo it looks like they may be 'bunching onions' which do not bulb out hugely. ALso, you may have actually picked them a month early if they are a bunching onion.
http://myfolia.com/plants/1152-bunching-onion-allium-fistulosum/varieties/18304-red-blush

Normally I buy my onions from a farm supply. For some odd reason I was in a supermarket when I noticed these red button onions and also there were yellow ones so I bought them and planted them and voila. You see the result. Wont do that again. I will cut them up and use them for seasoning and if I can still find plantable onions at the feed store I will replant and hope for the best.

If the onion plant is putting out flowering parts it means that the plant is reaching the end of the life cycle. Cutting off the flower stem will only slow the process down. Harvest the onions that are flowering for best results.
http://www.ehow.com/info_8166442_happens-onion-blooms.html

Chives will be fine, you can use the flowers in salads or as a garnish in other dishes.

Green onions are always one of the joys of sring. Pull when the size of a pencile, wash, salt the bulb and eat - use the green as a topping to a salad or add to stir fry, course it can always go into the compost bin, but I'd eat it.

we have harvested some of the replanted onions and they are sooo yummy!

here is a pic of one of the green onions that has gone bad in the refrig....sitting next to the harvested replanted one......wow....i think its safe to say that yes you can cut off the bad part of a green onion and replant it and it will grow



hugs

rose

FamilyGardening wrote:i think its safe to say that yes you can cut off the bad part of a green onion and replant it and it will grow

i've been doing this for a few years, and have had tremendous success.
http://www.romesticity.com/2010/04/reincarnated-onions.html

i haven't bought onions in at least two years, because we also harvest wild onions from our yard.

rowena....do you just cut the green part off of the onion all the way down and leave the white part of the onion in the ground to regrow....or do you pull up the onion then cut off the white bottom part and replant?

hugs

rose

Rose, I must have jinxed myself talking about my green onions to you in that other thread. I said I've been cutting the same batch of green onions inherited from a neighbor for three years now and they've never made flowers. Well, they are doing it now. D'oh! Good thing I had randomly decided to hand my daughter a handful of green onion bottoms to try planting. In just a few days we could see that they were growing. So that works and we'll just do some more to fill in the holes where we harvest the ones going to seed. Pretty fun!

it is fun!!

we gave one of those beauties to my sister tonight picked fresh from the garden along with some fresh harvested lettuce too!....she thought it was pretty cool!

it felt really good to share the harvest now if i could only give up one of my tomato plants to her.....i told her i would....but...but...their my babies still.... i will be happy to share in the harvest of them.....just not sure i can let one go to someone elses house.....

hugs

rose

FamilyGardening wrote:Not sure why my thread was merged with this one :scratch: ……I was wondering if you can still eat green onions after they flower? (same question with chives)

Can we cut the flower off and let it continue to grow?...does it change the taste like when other plants bolt?


rose

I think it is best to cut the chive flowers off as soon as they appear (though you can leave them to open if you want the flowers). I find that the green bit tastes better if you stop the flowers form developing. I just cut off whole chunks even if I don't plan to use it - it just grows right back.

FamilyGardening wrote:rowena....do you just cut the green part off of the onion all the way down and leave the white part of the onion in the ground to regrow....or do you pull up the onion then cut off the white bottom part and replant?

both, according to what we need for cooking that day.

ok, i just re-read your question and see that my response is probably confusing.

what i meant is that sometimes i cut the greens without pulling the plant, and sometimes i pull the plant, cut the greens, and then replant elsewhere. the main reason i do this is to manage my crops--either for spacing or seasonal needs or companionship or what have you. but i have learned that i can cut the onion very close to the roots and replant and it will still come back, so if i need some of the white i go ahead and use as much as i need.

rowena, I just planted some onions. not scallions and thought you might know the answer to my question..

The long leaves are just lying down across the square and not all perked up, is this normal?

kbb964 wrote:rowena, I just planted some onions. not scallions and thought you might know the answer to my question..

The long leaves are just lying down across the square and not all perked up, is this normal?

i haven't seen that, but i have never planted onions that still have much greens on them. how long have they been in the ground? i'd be tempted to trim the greens, but i think as long as they haven't started to wilt or turn yellow that they should probably be given a chance to prove themselves. they are the solar collectors for the bulb, so as long as they are functioning, i don't think it matters that they are lying down.

I just transplanted them a couple of days ago. I bought them as starts and the eaves were very long but as they were all clumped together ina bunch they were stood up fairly straight.
I will try trimming them

i am wondering whether i didnt plant deep enough

when we planted some of our onions from sets we trim off some of the green and planted the white part into the ground.....you dont have to have much green on it......

when we transplanted our onions that we started from seeds....the long thin green part was whimpy acting for a couple of days....just make sure to give them some water....they should perk up......

hugs

rose

I uprooted them , trimmed the roots, trimmed the tops and they are looking mighty fine now !

I found a video on you tube which was a great help

Hi everyone! I'm new here, but it's my 3rd year of SFG. I'm an addict and it is starting to take over my back yard.. This is my first year doing onions. I planted a couple hundred sets of various colors back in March, and they seem to be doing very well.

However it appears the wild temperature swings have affected them and a bunch of them are bolting. Since I know flowering onions are doomed, I started pulling them to cook with.. Now I came across Rowena's post about 'reincarnation', and in the link it shows that the onion will regrow from a small sliver of the bulb base. This has me wondering if you do that with an onion that has bolted, will it regrow an intact bulb without the flower stalk that can be stored? Anyone know?

Thanks!

Here's a pic of the first few I pulled. Used them in stir-fry.. It was delicious!

it's always worth a try--after all, if you don't plant it, what are you going to do with it?