Bolting already

No_Such_Reality 5/6/2013, 12:15 pm

Anybody else having a problem with bolting already.

My garlic and onions are bolting. Like last year, they're all sending up a seed stalk. My problem is when I feel the bulbs, they're all under sized.

Anybody with some insight? Is my problem not enough sun? The area gets more shade than I'd like due to some trees. Or is it a nutrient problem?

I'm a bit frustrated with my inability to get garlic and onions and the plants going right to 'seed' production.

angiesj 5/6/2013, 7:39 pm

My collards are bolting. Strange. Never had that problem this early before. I'm in Georgia!

jazzycat 5/6/2013, 8:26 pm

My collards committed sudden death damping off, probably because of all the rain we just had. But I don't water my bed. It's self-watering, sooooo...

My cilantro is bolting, however. Which is odd, considering the fact that it's been unseasonably cool this year where I live.

johnsonjlj 5/6/2013, 8:41 pm

All of the collards and lettuce I had growing throughout the winter bolted a couple of weeks ago, which was fine with me, since I needed that space to plant corn and okra!! We had several days in a row with temperatures in the 80s, so I really wasn't surprised.

cdedriver 5/6/2013, 8:43 pm

Jazzycat - my cilantro is trying to bolt, too. I'm in Fayetteville - just south of the ATL airport. Weird. thinking

Windmere 5/6/2013, 8:50 pm

Jazzycat, cdedriver, My cilantro is also bolting. I noticed tiny blossoms this morning. (I also live in Fayetteville.) I did not buy a "slow bolting" variety. Which leads me to my next question: Has anyone ever tried planting "slow bolting" cilantro seed?

yolos 5/6/2013, 9:04 pm

My overwintered brussel sprouts, my overwintered kholrab, some lettuce i and some of my brocolli I planted earlier in the spring are all bolting.

**camprn** 5/6/2013, 9:10 pm

No_Such_Reality wrote:Anybody else having a problem with bolting already.

My garlic and onions are bolting. Like last year, they're all sending up a seed stalk. My problem is when I feel the bulbs, they're all under sized.

Anybody with some insight? Is my problem not enough sun? The area gets more shade than I'd like due to some trees. Or is it a nutrient problem?

I'm a bit frustrated with my inability to get garlic and onions and the plants going right to 'seed' production.

What type of garlic is it? Just cut off the flower stem before bloom. The garlic will be putting more energy into the bulbs. I think onions, if grown from sets and thendsend up flowers will tend to be mushy and not goot storage onions. Because the onions are biennial, and because you have a long growing season, I would bet you could get good onions from seed.... are the flowering onions from seed or sets this year?

Pollinator 5/6/2013, 9:50 pm

If you can spare the space, let them bloom - give your pollinators a good feed.

**camprn** 5/6/2013, 9:55 pm

Indeed Pollinator, my bees love any of the allium blooms!

Chopper 5/7/2013, 12:35 am

When did you plant them? Last fall or this spring? Were the onions from seed or sets? I have had good luck with garlic - like ended up with a lifetime supply - but not so much with onions. My plan is to go online and read everything I can and then some more specific to So Cal. We did have that hot spell which might have contributed.

According to the chart I use it is best to plant both garlic and onion sets from October thru April so likely you made that window. Onion seeds take two seasons to be ready I believe, unless you just want the green stalks.

Lindacol 5/7/2013, 2:29 am

I bought the bunches of little plants from here:

http://www.dixondalefarms.com/category/short_day_onions
I think I planted them in March and they are bulbing nicely. I needed to thin them anyway and needed an onion so I pulled one a couple of days ago. It was over 2" in diameter. No bolting in my onions or garlic. Dixondale has lots of good info on growing onions.

No_Such_Reality 5/7/2013, 12:10 pm

I planted the onions and Garlic from sets in January. I've clipped all the scapes.

My yard and house are the wrong orientation to the sun, so I struggle a bit in winter with too much shade. Hence I wait until the new year to plant. Hoping remedy that with new beds.

**walshevak** 5/9/2013, 5:01 pm

I'm blaming the unusual cold spells we had here in the south for the bolting. Plants were nice and warm, then got hit by the cold followed by warm then another cold spell. I think the plants believe they have gone through a winter and are in their second year of growth and it's time to produce seed. I have noticed in past years that spring planted collards will last all through the summer, fall and a mild winter, but as soon as the temps go up in the following spring, bolting. But fall planted collards will only last through a mild winter and bolt when spring temps start rising.

Kay

angiesj 5/10/2013, 12:44 pm

walshevak wrote:I'm blaming the unusual cold spells we had here in the south for the bolting. Plants were nice and warm, then got hit by the cold followed by warm then another cold spell. I think the plants believe they have gone through a winter and are in their second year of growth and it's time to produce seed. I have noticed in past years that spring planted collards will last all through the summer, fall and a mild winter, but as soon as the temps go up in the following spring, bolting. But fall planted collards will only last through a mild winter and bolt when spring temps start rising.

Kay

I have just put the collards out. They are not from the fall. The temps have been really strange here so I'm sure that has something to do with it. I'm thinking about starting over with them.

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