Onion's got a few questions...

[mrsgreenthumbs]

So my onion set's were planted in febuary-march and I think I got some of the instructions mixed up with garlic... I trimmed them when they were about a foot tall down to 5 inches tall or so, then I did that again, and again. I thought that was supposed to force it to focus all it's energy into developing the bulb. Now I have TONS of green onions... like a grocery bag FULL and from what I can tell (stuck my finger in the dirt) the bulb is still REALLY small. I planted them like the package said, shallow for big bulbs. But it does not seem to be doing much. Also one onion has produced a flower. Should I cut it off? Should I stop trimming? They are very tall now. And what can I do with ALL those green onion's?

[gixxerific]

Good question. I know they say to trim them when seedlings before going out. But not sure about after they are in the ground. I was actually thinking about his myself the other day. I have some onions that are very tall and thick thus bending over.

Ihave have never had good luck with onions but one way or another this year will give me some good ones I have them in many diff places and different styles of plantings so something has to come out right?

I will be staying tuned to this thread.

Jal what say you my good man?

[farmerlon]

I'm still learning about Onions myself... but, I don't trim mine. I would think that, by trimming, you're robbing the plant of it's ability to photosynthesize and store that energy in the "leaf bulb".

Here is a very informative video about Onions, by Jeff Poppen in Tennessee... choose episode 1802 at this web page...
[url]https://www.wnpt.org/productions/vg/2010_feb.html[/url]

Hope that helps.

[gixxerific]

Nice video Lon I love the speaker we could get along. Makes me feel bad I shave off my gotee the other. It was only about 6 inches not down to my crotch and braided.

[michaelstigers]

quite informative....thanks for the link

(whines) I can't even grow hair on MY face.... (sobs)

[applestar]

I think the best way to save green onions/scallions is to chop them and freeze them. If you know you'll be using them in soup, etc. You can freeze them in ice cube trays of water. I tend to just put them in zip freezer bags. Then, I can just mash them loose, ice crystals and all and get a portion that I need.

[farmerlon]

Nice video Lon I love the speaker we could get along.

Yes, his name is Jeff Poppen, and he is known as "the barefoot farmer" (or "barefoot gardener", I can't remember which). He is featured regularly on the Volunteer Gardener show on Nashville Public Television (NPT).
You can search through the episodes at that web site, and find several of his presentations. I find his topics to be very informative, and fun to watch.

[applestar]

I got around to watching the onion video. I'm going to look for others. Thanks!

[garden5]

Man, it looks like there are quite a few of us who are trying to crack the onion code. From what I understand, the onion stores up energy in its greens and then uses that for bulb formation. This leads me to say that you should leave the greens alone or you may have small bulbs.

[gixxerific]

Yes that site has some good videos and check out jeff poppens site as well.

But enough of that back to original topic. I'm with G5. I myself have never trimmed an oninon plant that was in ground. I believe they would need the leaves as well for photosynthesis. But this is just my felling or guess. Does anyone know the true answer?

[applestar]

I read/heard/saw somewhere that each leaf equals -- is the top part of -- one layer of the onion bulb.

[garden5]

I read/heard/saw somewhere that each leaf equals -- is the top part of -- one layer of the onion bulb.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one. I've heard that, too.

It seems to me that I got impatient last year and started clipping the greens to eat them, but only did this with a few onions. Now, although all my onions were incredibly small (planted wrong type), I believe that the ones that I left alone did grow bigger than the ones that I clipped the tops of. Can't prove this, just going by recollection.