Onions bolting

Is anyone else having problems with their onions bolting?

I've never grown onions before so I don't know if I made a mistake or it is weather related.

The transplants were from Dixondale Farms (via a generous BronxBoy.) The varieties were mostly short day and included Yellow Granex, Texas Supersweet 1015Y, Contessa, White Burmuda, and Candy(day nuetral.) They were planted around mid-February with some plant-tone and mushroom compost added. Since they are short-day, I guess fall planting would give me better results?

I bought a tomato plant from a guy who was growing a bunch of onions from Dixondale a few weeks ago and his onions were already bolting too.

I guess I'll be eating a lot of green onions the next few weeks!

Any advice for next year?

Thanks,
Danita

Oh, forgot to mention, that I just picked up a pack of Granex seeds to start for fall planting. When should I sow the seeds to have fall transplants?



This message was edited May 22, 2009 10:59 AM

Hi Danita,
I've planted onions from Dixondale the last 3 years and each year I have some that send up a flower stalk. I planted some in the fall around October and the rest in February. It doesn't seem to make a difference. I think what causes it is that our mild winters confuse them into thinking 2 years have passed. Since they're a biennial, they grow from seed through one spring and summer and then go dormant over the winter and send up the flower stalk when it gets warm again. So I think when we put them in in February and have a warm spell followed by a cold snap it makes them think it's time to make seed.

I have found that some of the varieties are worse than others. I have only had a few yellow granex put up the flower stalk out of thousands. Last year for red I planted southern belle and most of them tried to flower so this year I planted Candy and so far no flowers on them. For White last year I did Contessa and didn't have much of a problem but switched to Bermuda this year and they have been awful. Every single one of them tried to flower multiple times. I suspect short-day generally have less problems than day neutral.

So that's the bad news. The good news is that the flower stalks aren't the end of the world. The plants will still bulb up and make a nice onion. As soon as you see the flower stalk just cut it off. You may have to do it multiple times. You need to catch them as early as possible. On the onions that did flower stalks on me last year, they made a nice tasty bulb for me, but I had 2 problems. Where the flower stalk leaves the bulb, is a weak spot and they will tend to rot pretty fast from that spot. If you eat them fast it's not an issue :) Second problem is just asthetics. They tend to not form a perfect globe shape. The bulb grows in two uneven halves around the flower stalk. Does not affect the taste and not really an issue unless you plan on selling them like I do.

You're short days like yellow granex and texas supersweet should be forming bulbs now, most of mines have nice big bulbs now and I'm harvesting some but won't harvest most of them for a couple weeks yet.

Candy has just started bulbing but the Bermuda aren't doing anything yet except trying to make flowers...

Good luck!
Jeff

Thanks for the info Jeff!

Yes, the White Bermuda are nothing but flower stalks. I think every one is trying to bloom.
My Granex and Texas Supersweets are about half bolting.
The Contessa only have one or two bolting plants so that's good.
Candy has no bolting and is starting to bulb up now.

I'm only growing one bunch of each, so 50 or so of each.

The Granex and Texas SS have nice bulbs but they are on the small side. I think they all need more fertilizer. The Contessa have cute, very white, small bulbs, the White Bermuda are bulbing some but mostly bolting, and as I said the Candy are starting to bulb.

I've read that cutting the flower stalks off leaves an open spot for water to rot the inside of the bulb. Do you have problems with that? I'm thinking that I'll just pop off the flower buds instead. That should stop the process for that stem but leave a sealed opening so water can't get in. Do you think that would work as well?

I've been using some of the bolting onions and have found the flower stalk is pretty tasty and crunchy. I gave some to my Mom and mentioned the flower stalks being good but warned her to make the first cut over the sink because they held water like a straw and dumped it out when cut (mine did anyway.) She said she remembered her mother saying that they would use the flower stalks as straws to drink buttermilk when she was a kid. :)

Yes, when I cut off the flower stalk I do it right below the flower bud but leave the green stalk. It still seems to leave a weak spot in the bulb after they have cured though.

Sounds like as far as varieties go you're having about the same experience as me except more of your granex are bolting. I think next year I'll stick to Granex, Candy and Contessa.

As far as bulb size goes, mine are really variable. I get some that are very big like you see in the store and some that are tennis ball sized and some golf ball sized. And these are all in the same bed so I'm not sure why. I suspect that since my soil is rocky some of them get stuck in a bad spot with a lot of rocks so can't suck enough energy out of the ground. I have seen certain places where there is less organic material in the soil and it's pretty heavy clay they all seem to be small in that area so if your soil is heavy you might try lightening it. If not, probably just fertilizer like you said.

I actually like getting some smaller onions. Some of my customers at the farmers market love the small ones. They use them whole in various recipes. I had ladies search through a bushel and pull out every single smaller onion and buy them. Not something you can buy in a grocery store :)

Jeff