what's going on with my onions?

**randyt** · 07-16-2010, 09:37 PM

I'm having a terrible time with my onions. they grow to about the size of a golf ball and tennis ball and then the stalks flop over. once the stalk is bent like that they're pretty much done growing. it almost seems like something is rolling on them but I don't see any sign other than the bent over stalk. any ideas?

I don't know if it's pertinent but I'm located in northern michigan.

**crashdive123** · 07-16-2010, 09:40 PM

When the tops fall over, they are ready to harvest. If you want bigger onions, you may have to thin them more.

**randyt** · 07-16-2010, 09:43 PM

thanks that could be. I have six inches between them and shoot they haven't hardly been in the ground six weeks.

**oldtrap59** · 07-17-2010, 12:10 AM

randyt. Since moving to this part of the country I have had similiar problems with onions. When I lived in Iowa all you had to do was stick the onion sets in the ground and away they went. Now down here most of them just don't seem to want to go anywhere. I have been told it's the clay soil and others say it's the ph. I've used lime and compost and still have the same trouble. Not as bad but not what I was used to getting over the years. I'm to a point where I just plant more and deal with the size or lack of it. I sure wish I could grow some of those big guys you see in the store but I doubt I would be willing to put what it takes into the soil.

oldtrap

**Winnie** · 07-17-2010, 04:36 AM

I gave up growing onions for that reason. I just grow shallots. Usually I plant the sets in autumn and get a terrific crop the following summer. This year because of garden changes I planted in late march and they've still done OK.
I may be mentioning something you already do, but have you thought about growing your own onion sets from seed? You might have better luck.

**Rick** · 07-17-2010, 08:54 AM

Randy - It may be the variety you are growing. Some don't get very large. Onions are biennials like carrots. They don't seed until the second year so there is no reason to pull them in year one. There are some annual varieties but most are biennials. I have some two year onions in the garden. The tops fell over last year and I just left them alone. The will "die" in the fall and sprout right back out in the spring.

My two year onions seeded this year and I harvested the seeds. I'll pull the onion this fall or when I need some more onions.

Two things tell the onion to bulb, light and warmth. You have a shorter growing season up there so they will bulb later. You might try leaving some in the garden this year and see if the two year growth will increase their size, assuming you don't have an annual variety. However, if the tops just fell over and didn't seed then you can rest assured they are biennials.

You can expect them to sprout next year when the temps are steady above 40° F and grow best between about 55° F and 75°F. Check to see if your onions are long day or short day varieties. Some require less than 12 hours of light per day to bulb (short day) and some require more than 15 hours (long day) to bulb.

**rwc1969** · 07-17-2010, 04:40 PM

I have no idea, but my granpa used to bend the stalks on his over to get the onion to grow large. I tried this myself and it didn't work. I must be missing part of the equation or was growing the wrong type of onion.

**randyt** · 07-17-2010, 07:08 PM

thanks for the advise. I'm not sure what kind a onion I have. they were bought as sets from a feed store. I'm probably not planting the right variety to get a big old slicing onion for a hamburger.

**LowKey** · 07-17-2010, 10:28 PM

Onions come in 'Long Day' types, 'Short Day' types and at least one 'Day Neutral' type.

Long Day types are good for the North where the days get long in mid summer.
Short Day types are good in the South.
They don't like being reversed.

As for the tipping of the leaves, RWC, your grandpa probably bent over the onion tops when he was ready to harvest or if for some reason flower stalks were starting to form on some of them. You don't want your onions to flower unless you are collecting seed.

As for the early bending of growing onion stalks, either they think it is time to stop growing based on day length or you may have a blight. Try rotating your onion patch to another section of the garden.