onions

[diggerrick]

how do you know when your onions are ready for harvesting? mine have what look like small seed pods forming at the tips? they have been in since october last year.any advice would be greatfull. cheers rick. :-\

[diggerrick]

[goodlife]

Are you talking about winter onions?
Well any onion is ready when it is worth while size for eating. Or the top growth is starting to die down.
But..if yours are starting to flower...then I suspect they've gone to seed before you have managed to harvest them. You could still eat what you can salvage. The flower stalk you may want to leave uneaten..bit tough..

[saddad]

You can just bend that flower bud over until it snaps out... but the onions are prone to rot if it rains a lot afterwards...  :-\

[irridium]

got a couple of onion sets (6 in total ::)) to fill the gaps in my bed, and am wondering if anyone knew if they're grow to a decent size later in the season ;)

my feb-planted ones (Sturon) are doing well, growing about 10" tall now. This is my first-time with onions & shallots  (and a lot of the veg on my newish lotti) and am most pleased with my self too! Just hope mine won't go to seed prematurely. I've looked after mine since Day One with the watering and the weeding. They've been mulched now with Council Leafmould, so am happier that there'll be less weeding to do later!

[lincsyokel2]

The hot dry conditions are making any overwintering onions start to go to seed.

If you have any that do this, all you can do is pull them up and use them. Once they seed they develop 'thick necks' and will not store like normal onions.

[diggerrick]

i have snapped off the seed shoots,as recommended and i have chopped them up and spread them amongst my carrots,this was a tip from one of my lottie neighbour's. cheers

[lincsyokel2]

i have snapped off the seed shoots,as recommended and i have chopped them up and spread them amongst my carrots,this was a tip from one of my lottie neighbour's. cheers

:o  what a waste, they were perfectly eatable!! mine go into cheese and onion toasties :D