Pruning Onions

[Jay-ell]

Does anyone prune their onions?

I've come across a couple of sites recently that recommend cutting back onions to improve the bulb size.

The instructions say that when the leaves reach 8"-12" you cut them in half. This encourages the plants to put up more leaves. You can repeat this twice more for a total of three cuts and the bulbs will be encouraged to be larger.

Half of me is saying that it's duff and the onion needs all its leaves to get the energy to make big bulb, half of me is thinking that it doesn't get rid of all the existing leaves but it might encourage new leaves and each leaf is a layer in the onion.

Of course you can never say how big an onion would if you had grown it differently.

[veggiechicken]

Half of me is saying - Life's too short to prune onions!
Actually, all of me is saying that.

[Jay-ell]

Half of me is saying - Life's too short to prune onions!
Actually, all of me is saying that.

Yeah, but I'm sure that you'd try growing square onions if you could figure out how so that they don't roll off the bench when cutting.

[ameno]

Yeah, but I'm sure that you'd try growing square onions if you could figure out how so that they don't roll off the bench when cutting.

I feel like you probably could grow square onions, using the same method they use to get square watermelons: put a square mould over the growing onion when it is still small, and let it grow into it.

[mcdood]

Maybe try trimming back half a dozen and see what happens compared to the others. I would give it a go but loathe to lift the enviromesh at the moment, maybe next time they're due weeding I'll give it a go.

[Jay-ell]

I'm going to try with a handful of plants but this year I'm only growing potato onions and shallots (both Allium Cepa Aggregatum) so each nest will probably have a different number of onions so it'll be hard to compare too well.

I do know that in Ethiopia they top their shallot bulbs - but in that case they actually cut off a quarter of the bulb before planting as it gives a slightly higher yields per plant (assuming that it doesn't rot away that is - the UK might not have the best climate to try that). That's not what I'm on about here.

Some people will trim the leaves of transplants/seedlings when they plant them out - but I believe that's either to reduce transpiration or to make them a little easier to handle. Anyway that's not what I've been reading about either.

Well, my onions aren't tall enough yet (I'll do it on the spring planted ones and I can't remember what's what with the autumn planted ones till I dig them up) but if I remember later on I'll give it a try with some along the edge of the bed (stops me banging against them as well).

Whilst I'm at it I might shave the Welsh Onions (Allium Fistulosum) next time I'm down to see if they can be induced to produce bulbils instead of seeds in a similar way to leeks (Allium Porum) or regular onions (Allium Cepa). They have their flowers and if they produce seed they'll be all over the place like weeds - fighting it out with the elephant garlic (Allium Ampeloprasum var. Ampeloprasum), scorzonera and strawberries which currently grow like that. I've already got welsh onions growing in between the pathing stones and the bed. After all the Welsh Onion is one of the ancestors of the Walking Onion (Allium Proliferum) - the other being the regular onion.

OK so it looks like I've convinced myself to give my onions a shave and a haircut.

[Small pumpkin]

I'm tempted to try this with a few of my onions. I've never had much luck with onions from seed, and that's all I've got this year. On the other hand I'm in agreement with VC .





Goes to play in the garden a little more confused than normal

[veggiechicken]

Where's Ap when you need him? He's a man who knows his onions and how to grow a biggun.

[MelanieSW]

Last year I noticed an allotment where someone had tied a knot in all their onion leaves.
I wonder if that was meant to achieve something similar?
Never managed to meet the plot holder and ask.

[Snadger]

I can feel an experiment coming on! You have a lot to answer for Jay, but can't resist the logic of it Half a dozen plants will get a haircut.

[mysteryduck]

I read in a book somewhere that you should trim garlic to encourage it to bulb up, so I did that. Never grown garlic before so we’ll see what happens

[Aberdeenplotter]

Where's Ap when you need him? He's a man who knows his onions and how to grow a biggun.

I grow big uns by growing varieties that grow big naturally. I'm reluctant to hack the tops off any of this years plants because I have grown on the exact amount I need but I may grow a few extras next year and wield the sharp knife

[veggiechicken]

I knew, if I cackled loud enough, you'd hear me Ap.

[Jay-ell]

I read in a book somewhere that you should trim garlic to encourage it to bulb up, so I did that. Never grown garlic before so we’ll see what happens

Did you do all the garlic or leave some to compare with?

[Miss Mousetrousers]

I've read about topping and tailing onions but I use sets so guess it doesn't apply, but when transplanting leeks into a bigger pot I trim off the longer roots because it's easier to get them down the hole in the compost, so maybe that method would work with onion seedlings too.