Onion Flop

[Isleworth_Novice]

Hi - I planted some onion sets back in the spring and they shot up. A couple of weeks back, they flopped over and never recovered. They seem to be 'bulbing up' ok and I gave them a mulch of grass clippings as I hear nitrogen is good. Does anyone know why they've flopped?

[jackie j]

Could be they are ready for pulling. Before you pull you bend them over to help the drying process. Somebody will be along soon to explain more or use the search button.

[Isleworth_Novice]

Thanks - I'll dig one up and see if it's ready.

Cheers!

[Two_Sheds]

The leaves flop over when the onion is nearly ready.... July is the usual time for onions to ripen.
You should gently pull back the earth/mulch from the onion to help the sun to dry it. After a time (depends how much sun you get) you can loosen the onion from the soil. Then pull it up (it should be really loose) and dry it off properly in the sun for a few days, or in a dry shed.

They won't store for long if they aren't REALLY dry

[KayJay]

I planted some onion sets this year for the first time. They appear to have flopped-so they are ready to pull. If I leave them in the ground will they get bigger or am I best pulling them up now and leaving them to dry.

[markwcel]

be interesting to know as some of ours are flopping over and thought it was the weather

[Snadger]

Water them with a week solution of Viagra......that'll make em stand up!

[gojiberry]

The weather can be responsible for onions flopping over. I don't take to much notice as you will not get them to stand up once they have flopped over. The colour of the tops is the indicating factor in deceiding when onions are mature and ready for lifting. The green should have started to turn brown, then gently lift to seperate roots from soil but leave for a few days for sun to ripen the bulbs. They can then be cleaned off put under shelter to fully ripen which will take a few weeks.

[KayJay]

Lovely weather today, so i have pulled up onions, I think they were ready to pull some have dry brown leaves around necks. I am surprised by the difference in sizes of onions, they were sets planted at the same time in the same plot. Some are small onion size, some large spring onion size. Is this normal.

[vegmandan]

You can get a wide range of sizes in a row,so it's pretty normal.

Generally once the neck of the onion has bent over it won't tend to bulb up any more,If just the odd leaf has flopped then leave them to grow bigger.

[janeyo]

Sorry to hijack.... but mine said on the packet that they don't store well. How long does this mean they actually store for or is it not worth the bother of tryng and I should be eating them all or giving them away!?

Thanks janeyo

[Winged one]

If they are not great storing onions, that probably means that they won't llast the whole winter. But you should still get a couple of months out of them at least (like maybe 3/4). Dry them well and string them or put them in net bags to keep. Use liberally from now on, and give some away if you think others would appreciate them and you wouldn't use them in the next few months. Make a batch of onion soup or some bhajis for the freezer.

Red onions apparently don't store at all well. So I concentrated on using those up earlier than the yellow ones last summer/autumn/winter - still used yellow but tended towards red when doing roasted ones, or anything where it would look nice etc and mainly used yellow in more utilitarian cooking (stews etc). But I did miss a few and they only got used amongst the last of the yellow ones in May/June just gone - a little shrivelled but still fine in cooked dishes.

I am currently working my way through my japanese onions (first time growing them). I am drying them at the minute, as I won't use them all straight away, but expect that they'll be gone by about September. They are drying well - just like both types last year. So I reckon they should be fine to use up first, then the red, and finally my spring sown yellows (which DO store well and were still fine for cooking when I used the last of them a couple of weeks ago).

[Stacey Steve]

Just about all my red onions bolted, I cut the seed heads off as soon as I spotted them and let them grow on.

Have started to use them but the centres are a bit mank and have to be thrown away, the rest of the bulb though is OK.

OH is going to use the majority to make Nigella Lawson's onion mush, although she is also going to try the onion marmalade recipe that was on here a few days ago (search for Red Onion Marmalade).

Onion marmalade/jam/jelly can be used in recipes where it tells you to caramalise onions. It is freezable so can be a good way avoiding waste of onions that can't be stored.