Some of my onions and garlic, planted as sets earlier this year, are
throwing out flower heads.

Should these be removed or left?

Best,

- h

'H',

Not good news as you will see below:

Q. What causes my bulb onions to send up flower stalks?
A. Several things can cause flowering of onions, but it is usually
temperature fluctuation. An onion is a biennial plant, which means it
usually takes two years to go from seed to seed. However, this condition
is triggered by temperature. If an onion plant is exposed to alternating
cold and warm temperatures resulting in the onion plant going dormant,
resuming growth, going dormant and then resuming growth again, the onion
bulbs prematurely flower or bolt.

Q. Should I remove the flower stalks from my onion plants?
A. No. Once the onion plant has bolted, or sent up a flower stalk, there
is nothing you can do to eliminate this problem. The onion bulbs are
still edible but probably will be smaller. Use these onions as soon as
possible because the green flower stalk which emerges through the center
of the bulb will make storage almost impossible.

I copied the above from this site which is very very long so I add the
site in case you wish to visit it.

http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publ...L/FSA-6014.asp

Regards,
Emrys Davies.








"H" wrote in message
...
Some of my onions and garlic, planted as sets earlier this year, are
throwing out flower heads.

Should these be removed or left?

Best,

- h

Not good news as you will see below:

Thanks for that. Not too much of a problem as only 1 or 2 are flowering.
Maybe 'summer' in April followed by 'winter' during May caused it?

Best,

- h

H wrote in message ...
Some of my onions and garlic, planted as sets earlier this year, are
throwing out flower heads.

Should these be removed or left?

you can cut the flower heads off, but any that are producing flower
heads will not have good onions or garlic cloves on, they are often best
dug up and then used straight away making use of what you can. Often
flower in response to stress, which is often after they have had too
little water.

Mike
www.british-naturism.org.uk

"Michael Berridge" wrote:

you can cut the flower heads off, but any that are producing flower
heads will not have good onions or garlic cloves on,

Right and wrong:
Hardneck garlic, by definition puts up "flower" heads, which actually will
have tiny bulbs on them. Whether it hurts the garlic depends on where you
are and soil fertility. The "harm" will be in reduced bulb size, but the
flavor and quality is fine. At my location (Northeast U.S.), not removing
the scapes results in bulbs less than half the size of the rest.
The good news: The scapes are excellent in stir-fries, or ground up with a
little olive oil and your favorite pesto ingredients. It freezes nicely in
ice cube trays.. I'm still baking bread with last year's!


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

"H" wrote in message
...
Some of my onions and garlic, planted as sets earlier this year, are
throwing out flower heads.

Should these be removed or left?

Best,

- h

Could be viewed as a source of next years seed ?, I always let a few garlic
go to seed !!!, okay so go to bubils would probably be better, these then
planted out take a couple of years to mature but still grow into quite nice
bulbs eventually, I tend to stick then in amongst the flower beds where they
can spend plenty of time without hogging the veggie patches.
Duncan