Does anyone have any suggestions what might be wrong with my onions? These are a Spanish Sweet onion that I planted last fall. The tops are browning, and it has been raining fairly often (so I don't have them irrigated). The inside stem is too tough to eat, so I am losing about half of each onion...
Could this be a result of their not getting enough water? or maybe just inconsistent watering? (I'm certainly guilty of that!)
Thanks - Patty
Patty,
I'm not an expert, but it looks like your onions "went to seed". Normally onions are bi-annual and bloom their second year of growth. If you have a cold snap followed by warmer weather, then more cold the onion gets fooled into blooming. The hard central part on your onion looks like a flower stalk. There's no way to stop it when it happens, but you can reduce the damage by pinching off the bloom stalks as soon as you see them forming.
David
Ahh... that's probably it. They have been blooming like mad. I cut off the blooms as soon as I see them, but the thick stalk has been sort of swelling anyway. Luckily I can eat around them.
Do you think I should harvest everything, even though I don't have that tell-tale sign of foliage dying back?
Our weather has been very schizo this year -- 91 in early May, and it's raining today (in Northern California)... very weird.
I've never seen anything like that one that's cut crosswise. All I know is that planting the onion too deep will cause thick necks. The bulb should be showing a bit above the ground while growing.
Strange... these onions were fairly above ground (and once I harvested, they were above. I had red onions right next to them, and they are perfect, I'm happy to say, but they didn't bolt.
I think dreaves had it. And different strains of onions will bolt or not, differently. They call them long day or short or day neutral.
So, I think I am going to pull all of the rest of my sweet onions, and assume they have done the same thing. I will only have the outer part that will be usable... any suggestions what I can do with them? Pickle? Dehydrate? I hate to throw the whole thing out...
If they have seed stalks, these will remain stiff and hard. These go down into the center of the onion as shown in your photo. Those whose tops fall over, die back, and the stem shrinks to almost nothing will be fine. Use the ones with seed stalks as green onions. They will not keep very long. Spanish type onions are long day and are not adapted to winter growing. Fall planting (not seeding) is for short day onions like granex and grano types.
