What is growing on my onion shoots?

[Inailum]

I have this on two of my plants. Is this normal?

[Francis Barnswallow]

It's normal. 90% of mine did the same thing.

[Inailum]

It's normal. 90% of mine did the same thing.

Oh cool, thanks! I didn't what kind of mutation I had made. lol

[TWC015]

That is the onion plants flower. Onions are biennials and will flower their second year of growth; they can also be tricked into thinking that they went through winter from the temperature swings in the spring. If you let it continue growing, numerous small white flowers will open.

You do not want onions to make the flower though. When an onion plant flowers, the flower grows through the bulb. This makes the onion rot faster so the onions with flowers will need to be used first. The flower won't affect the eating quality.

It is normal for a few onions to make flowers. If the majority of your onions make flowers, you didn't plant them at the right time. I planted onion plants in October from seeds that I started in September. I planted around 60 plants total from seeds and only one plant is bolting. Since they were tiny when the cold arrived, they weren't old enough to flower.

[jal_ut]

That is the flower bud. Clip it off and eat it.

Many onion growers clip the flower buds off as soon as they see them. The problem is that an onion that has sent up a flower shoot will not store well whether you clip the bud or not. That big heavy leaf that the bud ls on goes right through the center of the onion and makes it susceptible to rot. Eat those first.

It is common to get flowers on onions grown from sets. The small sets about marble size, are not as prone to flower as larger sets.