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bolting onions

Help!! I have never grown onions before and i have flower buds appearing on my huge thick onion leaves. Not much bulb to speak of. I am picking off the buds as they appear, should i pull and eat the onions now or will they fatten up. Can i make soup with the whole lot??? please help

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  • WintersongWintersong Posts: 2,436

    The cold spring will be the reason, I don't think you can save bolted veg although you can collect the seed? Don't rip them out before more expert veg growers have commented, but there is still time to plant new crops if that's the only solution

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,139

    Did you grow these from seed or sets and when did you start them off?


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • chicken!chicken! Posts: 16

    They were sets in the autumn, did really well up until now!

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114

    There is no point in saving the seed.

    Use the onions that have bolted in the kitchen, they will not store.

    There are onion seeds that you can plant now which will give a nice crop of onions before the Autumn.  Have a look in the catalogues or on-line

  • chicken!chicken! Posts: 16

    Thanks guys, i best get cooking. Thanks for your helpimage

  • Tropical SamTropical Sam Posts: 1,488

    The only problem with bolted onions is that they do not store - they use all their energy to make flowers. One of the main reasons fro bolting is disturbed roots - moving them or too dry/wet. Leave them till the bulb is of useable size and you will not have lost out.

  • Excitable BoyExcitable Boy Posts: 165

    Some of my spring-planted sets have bolted too, probably due to the extremes of weather/moisture. I can confirm that blairs is correct in that you can just snip off the flower stalk and use the bolted onions first come harvest time.

    I have to say that I have grown onions for many years and there are always a few that bolt so I accept it as part of the game. You have to eat some of them first, so it might as well be the bolters!!

  • ItalophileItalophile Posts: 1,731

    Yes, onions are sensitive to the point of being neurotic. At the vaguest possible hint that they might be in jeopardy, the roots decide they'd better slip into reproduction mode and work on producing flowers, hence seed. I've had wildly fluctuating Spring temps and just about my entire crop of about 250 plants is madly trying to reproduce.

  • chicken!chicken! Posts: 16

    Oh dear i only had about 100!

  • ItalophileItalophile Posts: 1,731

    Then you're suffering a bit less than half the frustration I am! image

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