MNBadger
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:02 pm

Help! I planted onions but this unknown plant grew instead!

Hopefully someone can help. I live in Minnesota and I planted Walla Walla onions from seed that I got from the store. The plants that grew instead are these tall leafy plants that flowered, and now the flower is turning to a fruit that I don't recognize. Please see the attached picture!
Attachments
image.jpg

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

I assume your picture is sideways... It is velvetleaf, a common wildflower/ weed, depending on your perspective. It is making seeds not fruit. It is very common to get weeds where you plant things.

Here's another picture of velvetleaf. Touch the leaves and see where it gets its name! :)

Image
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/ud ... sti-10.jpg

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

PS, if you don't want more velvetleaf in your yard, get rid of those seed pods before they mature.

In my yard, it pops up in different places around the yard, but as individuals, not as colonies, and doesn't take over. I always keep some around, because it works really well as a trap crop for leafminers.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Did ANY onion seedlings ever emerge? They first appear as folded grassy loops that eventually unfold and stand up. They are rather delicate at first and easily overwhelmed by weeds. Onions are shallow rooted and need a fairly careful watering and heavy feeding at first. I haven't been able to grow onions from seeds unless I start them in January and plant little plants around beginning of April, and even then, they only grow to about golfball size.

I've tried sets (tiny bulbs that should be smaller than a dime in diameter) and purchased plants. And as originally reported by jal_ut, I have seen my biggest so far onions from the purchased plants.

The purchased plants are much bigger at planting time than the ones I've managed to grow. I suspect I would have to start them even earlier, and that's getting to be too much hassle. So I will buy plants to grow for size, though I want to keep trying different experiments to see if there is a technique for growing big onions myself from seeds.

I think in the south and warmer areas where the ground doesn't freeze, you can start onions in fall and grow them over the winter and get better results, unlike in the frosty cold northern states.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Depending on where you are, it might have been the wrong time to plant onion seed. I plant onion seed in the ground in the fall to overwinter and grow in the spring. But as applestar noted, I never get very big onions that way, like no more than golf ball sized, maybe less. (When apple mentions starting in January, I expect she means indoors.)

This spring I planted onion sets, of a day neutral variety and they bulbed up for me really nicely.

You do need to pick the right onion variety for your location- long day, short day or day neutral for those like me in transition zone.



Return to “Onion Gardening Forum”