Decapitated Onions!

[Chantenay]

My sister in law has hacked off the tops of all my nieces beautiful onions and garlic leaving just a foot or so of foliage. She claims it is the way these things are done in India! I assume this might be a preemptive strike against bolting but it seems rather harsh and damaging. (especially as they were heat treated sets, but let's not go on at her too much).
Question is will they continue to grow? Should we just dig up the garlic to save it or leave it to ripen a bit more? What's the prognosis?

[Chantenay]

[Tee Gee]

Question is will they continue to grow?

Yes

Should we just dig up the garlic to save it or leave it to ripen a bit more?

A lot depends upon what size and condition it is in now!

What's the prognosis?

The bit that concerns me most in this country as opposed to India is the'Rainfall/seasons.

Onion leaves are hollow so in a rainstorm these are going to fill up with water which will quite possibly lead to 'neck rot'.

OK in India they have rainy seasons and the practice of cutting the tops will most likely be out of the 'rainy' season so they will not have our problems.

So play the weather and if your onions/garlic leaves fill with water then I am afraid you will have no other option but to lift them.

OK the above is my opinion and not having come up against such a practice my guess is.................it wasn't a good idea!

The only reason I go along with it in part is; they might grow a bit more before they are affected as I describe above.

Best of luck!

ps If they do fill up with water hang them upside down for a few days to allow the water to drain out before storing them!

[Chantenay]

Thanks for that. It sounds a bit more hopeful than when I first saw the carnage!!

[PurpleHeather]

I have seen people bend over the green tops and tie each one with raffia, probably this will be for the same purpose of stopping top growth and encouraging the bulbs to grow but is much more fiddly

It would avoid the rain getting in though.

[sawfish]

maybe its to stop them going to seed.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Bending the tops over was originally makework for underpaid Victorian gardeners. It achieves nothing.

[Fork]

I have seen people bend over the green tops and tie each one with raffia, probably this will be for the same purpose of stopping top growth and encouraging the bulbs to grow but is much more fiddly

It would avoid the rain getting in though.

I can only imagine this is done to "tidy" up the row of onions to make getting in to weed a little easier??

[cornykev]

My mate on the lottie bends his onions, he says he used to do it when he worked on the farms in Ireland, he says it feeds the bulb somehow. :-\
One of the other blokes on the lottie did cut off his tops once, I'll have to ask him why he did this, personally I would never cut them off, I do tend to bend some of them but only the ones I can reach.  ???        ;D ;D ;D

[Tee Gee]

My mate on the lottie bends his onions, he says he used to do it when he worked on the farms in Ireland, he says it feeds the bulb somehow.

I think he is a bit out there!

It is to stop growth and to aid ripening.

Others just stick a fork under each bulb and crack/break the root system for the same reason.

The giant growers will support the stems until last gasp in order to get the last bit of photosynthesis (growth) out of them so no way would they bend the stems.

So there is three reasons take your pick.

Personally I just let nature take its course and when the majority have flopped over I lift them and dry them.

[campanula]

it doesn't feed the bulb - it is a waste of time. People who show onions bend the dry tops and tie with raffia for exhibition purposes - they don't do this in the field though. If water in the foliage is a problem, (I have whipped the tops of mine to stop bolting and never worried about rain getting in) try and get a sheet of clear polythene over them, held off the plants with canes. Pur a cane in the centre too so you don't get a sheet of polythene filling with rain.

[PurpleHeather]

With gardening there are a lot of traditional ways of doing things.

It worked once or twice....So we always do it that way now......So to speak.

Over the years a lot of methods which seem to have worked for generations have been proved to be unscientific  BUT they still seem to work.

It  is confusing to the new gardener. The confident veteran will plod on.

[cornykev]

I think my words came out wrong, thinking back he may have said ripening. ???     :-\        ;D ;D ;D

[Glen]

How do you tell when your onions are ready for harvesting?

My over wintered Red and white onion's foliage is starting to flop over on its own - does this mean its ready to be lifted?  ???

Also when they run to seed do they grow a rather larger stork which looks completely different from the other foliage? (taller and fatter - with a seed head on top) On these storks I cut off the head as close as possible, does this mean that these onions have tried to go to seed and the bulbs will no longer grow/swell?

[PurpleHeather]

I go by the size. The over winter ones I am now pulling up as I need them since they are a good size and my store of last years was depleted four weeks ago.

[chriscross1966]

How do you tell when your onions are ready for harvesting?

My over wintered Red and white onion's foliage is starting to flop over on its own - does this mean its ready to be lifted?  ???

That's pretty much the sign, foliage dying down and the onion preparing to aestivate. I'm going to be pulling my overwintering onions out any day now, though due to various problems and laziness on my part I reckon I'll be lucky to get a jar of pickles out of them....

Also when they run to seed do they grow a rather larger stork which looks completely different from the other foliage? (taller and fatter - with a seed head on top) On these storks I cut off the head as close as possible, does this mean that these onions have tried to go to seed and the bulbs will no longer grow/swell?

Yes, the flowing stalk is fairly distinctive, though less so than on the bladed alliums like leeks and garlic, more so than on the multipliers like tree onions and chives.  If you've taken the flower stem off then the bulb will grow/swell, however a bolted onion (whether pruned or unpruned) won't keep very well. My mother (when we lived uot in the country when I was a kid) used to used the bolted ones first before the main harvest and if there were any left at the main harvest just used to make a  masive batch of onion gravy and freeze it in portions...

chrisc

[Glen]

Thanks Chrisc.

Think I will pull the bolted ones tonight.

[cornykev]

95% of my reds bolted, so I've pulled half of them and frozen them in bags, I've pulled about 40 yellows so far and they are hanging in my shed. The reason I pull them a bit early is, they tend to disappear of their own accord and if we have some out bursts of rain like yesterday they don't get a chance to dry out.    ;D ;D ;D

[marcusexeter]

one year rabbits ate all the tops off my onion sets and they were just fine - there was fair share of rain too that year - so don't worry

[kt.]

I can't comment on the tops being cut off but until 2 years ago, I used to bend the necks of the onions just prior to harvest but it seems this is no longer the case... ::) ::)
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Onions---shallots