Onion plants with white balls on top

[SuburbanHippie]

This is my first year growing onions. I realize that the onions that have the white blossoms on top are going to seed now. Does that mean I should have harvested them already? Or I should harvest them now? Should I let them keep up and just use the seeds next year?

It's only a few onion plants, but I'm worried that they will all go to seed and my growing season will be pointless. I've tried googling, but you get some crazy hits on "why are there white balls on my onion."

[lunarlady]

I've been wondering the same thing...like should I cut the flowers off and eat them, or harvest the ones that are blooming, or just leave them be? I'll have to check back and see if you get an answer. Why are there white balls indeed? Ha! Sound's like my toddler. (And she's not so good at google.)

[sunnysandiegan]

Call or visit a local nursery???

[workjw]

I've always heard that there is no wrong time to harvest onions. As for them going to flower, we usually harvest them at that time because at that point the energy is going to the bloom and seeds and not so much to the onion. Your onions probably won't grow much more after they've gone to seed, but it shouldn't hurt them to stay in the ground. They are still perfectly fine to eat so really you should be good either way until the tops turn and fall over.

I could be totally wrong, but that's how we do it around here.

[Frisha]

I normally break the blooms out when they are first forming. Then harvest when the tops fall over.

[Owen'nZoe]

I also remove the blossoms as soon as I start seeing them, so the plant puts its energy into the bulb, rather than the flower.

[tankgirl73]

I've got a few onions that will be flowering soon... they're last year's crop... started from sets last spring, they were old sets and the onions didn't get much bigger than 1.5-2" diameter at the most. There were a few that I apparently missed last fall, and I was surprised early this spring when these green shoots sprang up.

The green stems are huge on them now, whereas the new plantings this year are just a moderate size. And several of them are growing flower stalks and buds.

They're obviously not ready to harvest, though. I think it was really not much different from starting from sets in very early spring (it was much earlier than a typical planting time, we had an unseasonable warm early spring) since the onions were so small... And they're still really small. They've only been growing for a couple of months. I'm not surprised that they're going to seed, I'm surprised that they're doing it so soon!

I'm thinking I'll actually let them go to seed and harvest the seeds, use them to start a new onion cycle... and use the ones planted this year for an actual root harvest.

[kriket]

Originally Posted by Frisha

I normally break the blooms out when they are first forming. Then harvest when the tops fall over.

yep. i will even crack them off when i see them coming up the leaf
nak