Onion sets are already into the second year as the onion is a biennial. Naturally, they will flower especially if exposed to a freeze. It is said that cutting off the flower stalk will help but I've never tried this. Eat the flowering onions first since they don't store well.

hmmmm...I guess i just didn't understand what I had exactly. I know that once they flower the stop bulb production and I know that the bulb that is there will not store well, soooo I guess I got alot of green onion...:)

Oh well, good thing I like green onion also..:)

How do I avoid this next year? Do I plant from seed instead to ensure that the plants in the spring are not going to flower? Do I plant from seed in the fall or spring?

thanks
kendra

Kendra, I grow lots of onions from sets and seed. This year, I'm again growing a few from plants. It's all good.

Sets (dormant immature bulbs) are great for really early scallions. The varieties grown are also usually very suitable for allowing some of them to mature and then use out of storage. Yes, they are inclined to flower so keep an eye on the onion patch and harvest those with flower buds as scallions before going on to the others.

Onions from seed are a little hard to deal with because the seedlings are so small. I start them in the greenhouse and then transplant out of the flat into the garden. Transplanting early will help avoid shock but youÂre dealing with something the size of dog hairs . . .

Sowing seed directly in the garden works okay. Small onions are very vulnerable to weed competition and trying to get the weeds out without uprooting the tiny onions, is tuff.

Other vegetables also react to cold weather early in the season by curtailing their growth and flowering. There are "windows of opportunity" for planting and sometimes they are small and the Spring weather is unpredictable. More than one variety and seeding more than once can increase your chances for success. Also with onions, you've got sets, plants, and seed. Life is good.

Steve

I've had good success by cutting off the flower stalks. Also I actually did let a few flower and saved the seeds, which did germinate the next year.

It's been a weird year for onions for me, too. I started some bunching onions from seed earlier this year and they've been flowering for a few weeks already. The ones I planted last year (same kind of onion, even) took almost a year to start flowering. Some of the onions I started from bulbs this spring are also flowering, although that surprises me less.