SLC
Senior Member
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Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 9:18 pm
Location: Central Connecticut

Will Onions start growing again if tops died off early?

I planted a ton of onions in front of my tomatoes. Something weird happened to the tomatoes this year and a couple plants grew like 7-8 feet tall and my stakes were only 5-6 feet tall, so they flopped over some of the onions and blocked the sun. The onions that were blocked from the sun - all the tops died off already, but the onions are only about golf ball size. The onions that were not blocked, are still fine - tops still good.

Now the tomatoes are starting to die back so in 2-3 weeks, the onions should have full sun again....will they start growing again even though the tops died off early?

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

If they do, they will use the bulb that grew this season as energy source so they go back to nothing, and you will have green onions before end of the season, but not bulb onions. Bulbing onions are one-shot deal and what grows and bulbs by the time the tops flop over is what you get.

I'm still such a novice at growing onions that my onions often only grow to golf ball size or even smaller. But they can still be used -- whole in stews or cut up... You could freeze them or dehydrate them and grind into onion powder or dry minced as onion flakes.

I found out by accident that if some of the tiny onions manage to cure properly and last until next spring, you can plant them as sets (typically you want them to be dime sized to not bloom) and they grow pretty well. So don't think they are total loss.

Oh -- my descriptions are for long day onions in the north with winter lows too low to let most onions overwinter in the ground. Only three varieties I have heard you can plant in the fall in the north are Walla Walla, Candy, and Bridger. I imagine in the south where you can grow fall-planted onions, you might be able to just leave those in the ground.

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jal_ut
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7447
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Best to pull those little onions. Dry them and they will keep a while. You can use them where you need onion

Here onions won't overwinter in the ground. The ground usually freezes down 8 inches or so deep and if the onions freeze, they die.

I plant seed in the spring for little green onions, and onion sets for large bulb onions. Have fun!



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