Flowering onions

[hamsterqueen]

I've never grown garlic and onions before. planted a bed of white and red onions and garlic in October/November..They are looking good but have started to produce flower bud in teh last few days. Is this normal? Should I leave it or cut it off?

[janeyo]

They are bolting. You need to cut the flowering bit off or it will be woody and hard inside the onion. A lot of us are havin this problem this year. I am now pulling my bolted ones and using them. Do a search for bolting onions and you will find lots of info

[hamsterqueen]

thank you!

the weird weather is causing quite a lot of stuff to bolt. My new batch of chard has bolted and was only a few inches high..

just off to chop them now

[planesailing]

Cut them off, chop them up and add them into a stir fry!

[ginger ninger]

My onion's did the same I pulled them up, chopped them and blanched them for later use, I have quite a few small bag's of onions in the freezer now.
Alternatively you could let one go to seed for your next crop!

[russell]

I'm glad it's not just me who is having trouble with onions. I thought I'd not looked after them properly this year.

I nipped all the seed heads off yesterday and will begin pulling when I have run out of shop bought at home.

[hamsterqueen]

I chopped the flower stalks into last night's salad

very tasty, if a bit tangy

[Jillyreeves]

Some of my over wintered White Onion sets are bolting and one of my shallots, not sure what to do :-(

Pulled the onions to use like large spring onions.

Any advise welcome :-)

[Nicos]

Mine did that every year-so now I plant out sets in March and I'm getting better results!

garlic- touch wood- this year is fine...so far!

[jonohanson]

Mine usually bolt every year (never seem to have much look with onions), but this year out of 500 we have only had 1 or 2 bolt!!

[hamsterqueen]

Some of my over wintered White Onion sets are bolting and one of my shallots, not sure what to do :-(

Pulled the onions to use like large spring onions.

Any advise welcome :-)

funnily enough it was my white onions which bolted, the red and 'normal' ones are fine.

[Jillyreeves]

My overwintered Brown (normal) and Red Onion Sets are fine too.

[Alison]

Some types of garlic are meant to flower and I grow them particularly for that reason as I love the scapes