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Vegetable Gardening

Newbie question about onions

13 years ago

Ok, this may sound silly ... but it's my first year gardening. I planted onions from starter bulbs. They are growing like crazy (greens 2.5 ft tall at least) for three different types, the specifics I can't remember (of course) but white, red, and brown (the brown were "sets" I think? as in, they had a long "green oniony" look, but they were brown ... it was some kinda sweet onion.)

BUT...

I read through some threads a couple of days ago about onions, and I wen through that whole long one where the person seeded with tweezers and overwatered and planted and got powdery mildew and such. (It was a very dramatic thread. I tried to explain it to my honey and he just stared at me blankly ... he thinks I'm kinda crazy with this whole gardening thing.)

BUT...

The image of her onion patch with all of the beautiful onions sitting on top of the soil startled me. At first, I thought she'd pulled them and was letting them rest and dry before bringing them in for storage, but then I realized they were GROWING that way.

(Is that normal?)

My experience with "bulbing" things is limited to daffodils ... and for them, the bulbs are under the ground!

(Are onions supposed to bulb above the ground at what I would call the "base of the stem?") I planted the seed bulbs under the surface, and I've just assumed they should be growing there. Is that the difference in how they look when you grow from seed (the bulb grows on the surface) vs growing from seed bulbs?

Forgive me if this sounds ignorant, but I've been looking at my onions sideways ever since reading that thread wondering what's going on with them. Inquiring minds want to know! :)

Thanks for your time and thoughts (and lack of laughter at me :P ).

-v

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Comments (7)

amlinde78
13 years ago
It sounds like you did it right. When you initially plant the bulb will be under the dirt and as it gets bigger more than half of the bulb will be exposed while the roots at the bottom are still covered in the dirt. Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: VegeNag
mister_potato_head
13 years ago
There is a forum here on GardenWeb called Allium forum. There you'll find lots of great information about growing the allium family, which garlic, onions and shallots are members of. Enjoy your garden.
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sheeshshe1
13 years ago
That happened to mine. I planted them and as they grew only the roots were below the soil, the entire bulb was above the soil.
nancyjane_gardener
13 years ago
Don't ever apologize for being a newbie! Everyone was one at one time! =)
Even after 9 years of serious gardening, I only planted onions last year and I didn't know the answer to your ?!
Garden on! NT
growinidaho
13 years ago
Many of mine are starting to be above ground like the above posters said. I read that the ones that shoot up a flower stalk wont grow bigger anymore so go ahead and use those up now.
Try not to bump onions together so they bruise when you dry them. They wont store as long. This is my first yr at onion sets too.
veronica_p8
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you all for your info, encouragement, and kindness. :)

I went "Ooo" at the flower stalk comment ... I think a couple may be doing that ... Is there anything to be said for letting them blossom and try to seed? Does it hurt the bulb? do I have to harvest the bulb for it to be good before it blossoms?

I may let one or two flower just because it may be cool to see how it works, and to save the seed and try to plant it. I have a few radishes I planted around my summer squash/cuke bed to try to discourage rabbits and they have seed pods. Someone posted something somewhere on here that they are tasty pickled and used in bloody marys ... hmmmmmmm .... ;)

(this is all so very exciting!)

-v
sewobsessed
13 years ago
veronica_p8,
Yup, you can go ahead and let the flowers form if you don't care about using the onion bulb. In my experience, they become very bland and sort of mealy-ish once they bloom and they definitely aren't storable for long.
It's very easy to collect and save seed from them to start plants for next year. Simply keep an eye on them after the flowers turn into small, dried pods - each small flower will turn into a tiny pod and you'll end up with hundreds of seeds. You have to catch them pretty quickly once they're dried out or they may end up on the ground before you know it. Depending on variety, most are jet black and will pretty much spill right into your hand with a good tip.
Have some fun experimenting with it. What have you got to lose but a couple bulbs? :)

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