Onion shoot tips turning brown

I planted some onion seeds a few weeks ago & they came up okay. Now they are about 3-1/2" tall and the very tips of the shoots are turning yellowish brown and wilting. They are 4" under grow lights. The bottom of the shoots are green and look pretty good...it's just the tips. Is this normal?

They might be showing signs of being too close to the lights...

Thanks threegardeners,
This is my first year of gardening on my own. The only other time I 've done any gardening was back when I was quite a bit younger (I used to help my Mom). She never used grow lights...only sowed seeds outside after frost. So, thanks again for the input.
Can you tell me what distance should they be from the lights?
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
KichiGarden

I'm not sure of an exact safe distance...every plant is different. If it were me I'd give them another couple of inches to be safe.

The same thing happened to my onions that I direct sowed in the garden. The tips got a little brown and wilted and then a second shoot came out and that one is just fine. They seem to be doing alright. This is the first time I have grown onions from seed, so just wanted to share my experience that maybe what is happening in normal for onions? Kelly

mine did that after a cold spell--now they are growing well (they were grown from sets though, so I don't know if that makes a difference)

It's kinda strange...I have second shoots on many of the onions and some are just fine, while others are a yellowish brown as well. Hopefully all will be well once I can get them outside.
Glad I'm not the only one with issues.
Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks folks,
I took the advice about raising the lights. I also snipped off any tips that were brown, moved them to a little cooler location and cut back on the water a little. They are now looking great and are shooting up really well.
Thanks again,
Kichi

Yeah!! Glad they are doing better;)

Since ya'll are talking about onions here, I'll chance my question. My creeping onions have grown beautifully since planting them in November. Today I noticed the tips on some had what looked like a little bud or a seed pod. I'm guessing seed pod. Any suggestions on what I should do with 'em? Thanks!

Linda

When starting onions from seed, don't let the green tops get too long. They should be given "haircuts" regularly. Simply snip them down to 1" high and keep them at that height until the time nears to when they are to go into the garden. Then, let them grow to a couple of inches or more. The clipping to 1" is to make the roots grow stronger.

Gymgirl: my advice is let your onions bloom! We have a type of green/walking onion (not the egyptian kind with the really awesome blooms, look up a photo of that) and the last two April/Mays, each plant will put up one to four great flowers. Now, you don't want to harvest this stalk for eating- they're too thick and have that serious mucus membrane thing going on. They're big spherical clusters of white flowers that certain types of the bees love. From the seeds collected last year we have another half dozen planted a few months back that are around a foot tall now, sorta like big chives. The 'flower' is really about a hundred or so flowers, and yes, they do smell like onion, but not the super strong sulfur smell that makes your eyes water and they look niffty cut and placed in a vase. Cut when most of them have opened and it should last for a week. Or leave them outside and growing to get some good seeds.

I wonder if yours are similar to ours....super big and some people when they've seen them at first think they're a leek.

I really need to get a digital cam and the software to share photos.

Peace yall

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