Yes, you're right in assuming they won't bulb up, but it isn't because they are hybrids. No onion bulbs up after bolting. The bolting sort of stops the onion at whatever stage it is at, and that's it---all the energy has begun to go into creating the flowers/seeds. I usually pull the bolting ones for green onions, but occasionally leave a couple in the ground to bloom. The flowers are pretty and they attract tons of beneficial insects to the garden.

Yes, your multiplier onion sounds like walking onions. As the top of the onion stalk becomes heavy with the little baby onion on the top, it bends over to the ground and the baby onion roots into the ground wherever it touches. In that manner, the onions "walk" across the garden and establish new plants over the years.

I googled bolting onions and was surprised to find cool weather tended to cause bolting in onions. The one's bolting are next to the edge on the west side. Maybe they got a little colder there. The walking onions are on the other end. I would have saved seed if they weren't hybrids.

It happens because they are biennials. Once they are actively growing and have reached a certain size, a return to cool weather makes them behave as though it is their second year. Since biennials bloom in their second year, the return to cool weather signals them to bloom and set seed. Plant behavior like that is based on certain patterns that include temperatures and daylength, not calendars. All the plants can do is respond to the cooler temperatures in the way they are genetically programmed to respond. It can be very frustrating because a gardener can do everything right in terms of planting the onions and caring for them and the weather still can cause bolting. This growing season so far the weather here in OK has cycled between warm/hot and cool/cold over and over again. I'm surprised all of us don't have bolting onions----and it still could happen. Yours might be the first incident in what is about to be an epidemic of bolting onions. We got really hot a while back and I knew my broccoli would bolt. Sure enough it did. The heads were only about 1/3 the size they usually get when I began to see signs they would bolt. I watched carefully and harvested the smaller heads right when they were about to flower. I was a little surprised that the onions weren't bolting right along with the broccoli. Then, instead of waiting for side shoots, which likely would try to flower almost as soon as they formed, I took out the broccoli and planted my Mucho Nacho pepper plants there. I figured I might as well get something into that spot that wasn't going to mind the heat and I'm not sorry I did it.

I'm definitely not counting on a good onion harvest this year. All these cool nights and mornings. They weren't mulched very well, either.

My onion crop is not good at all. I think most have rotted and many of the others I cant find for the weeds.

Bon, They might be fine. With onions you just never know. My onions have no mulch on them this year and I don't intend to mulch until and if this infernal rain stops falling. I need for the soil to be able to dry up as much as possible in between rainstorms or in between rainy days. My usual heavy mulch strategy is on hold for some areas of the garden because the soil is far too wet as it is and I don't want for mulch to prevent it from achieving whatever little bit of drying out it can get between storms. I think one reason I have so many lovely volunteer plants this year is because the onion bed is not mulched. From that bed, I have dug up and moved hundreds of Laura Bush petunia seedlings, hundreds of moss rose seedlings, and dozens of catnip, basil, lemon basil, and chamomile seedlings. That onion bed is the gift that just keeps giving, and I didn't even use all the seedlings I dug up. A lot of them got pulled up and composted. It is relatively weed free and volunteer free now, but I weed it every single day that rain doesn't keep me out of the garden like it is doing today. I see good onion plant great, nice leaf development and happy plants, but even well-amended clay in raised beds can stay too wet if the rain falls several days a week like it has been falling lately. I'd have it mulched if I could, but that would almost guarantee the onions will rot. So, you know, even though you're drier than we are, the lack of mulch might not be hurting the onions as long as you keep them well-weeded. More so than most plants, onions cannot abide competition, so keeping them weed-free helps produce bigger, healthier onions.

I have the pathways mulched to prevent soil splash and its related diseases. I have the tomato beds, the rows of sweet corn and the bean beds mulched to prevent soil splash and related diseases. I have the flowers mulched. The onions, though? If they are to survive, they must remain unmulched.

Including the rain that has fallen on my garden today, we're approaching year-to-date rainfall of 14". It sounds good, no? Well, actually, no. That much rainfall this early hurts as much as or more than it helps. I'm not panicking yet, but after looking at my forecast for the next week, I am starting to think the back garden will not get planted because it is going to stay too muddy too late in the season. More and more this year's rainfall reminds me of 2007---when I still had tomato and pepper plants in containers in May and June because I couldn't put them in the ground.....and the plants in the ground were waterlogged and growth was stalled and some were dying. I ended up planting a lot in cat litter buckets and 5 gallon buckets that year because there was no other way to do it. Peppers are perfectly happy in cat litter buckets, but indeterminate tomato plants in 5 to 7 gallon pots require an incredible amount of water and fertilizer to stay happy even when the ground is too wet for them. 2007 was a horrible weather year. While 2014 started out kind of wonderful, the longer the rain falls, the more likely we see a repeat of 2007, or even 2004. While 2004 was great overall, the spring was far too wet with over a foot of rain in one month. I want rain and I appreciate getting it, but we're at the point that it is too much at once. I don't even remember what my onions did in 2004 or 2007 but I think they struggled and some bolted and some died. I always plant tons of them to allow for some to drown, burn up in drought, or be pounded into oblivion and our crazy weather is why I do that.

I wish we could send all this excess moisture over to SW OK, particularly to the Altus and Duncan areas. Their lakes would love all the water runoff we are having here.

One of the few shallots that survived my garden mole (R.I.P, Mr. Mole) is also about the flower. I was going to try to cut the flower stalk and see it it would still bulb a little. Do you think that would be an exercise in futility? If I just pull it, I could have a spot for another heidi tomato plant.

Larry, I've lost half of mine. The rain is the primary reason they weren't mulched, but it's a new bed and, like yours, I must search for the onions among the weeds. We've been weeding and they should all be weed-free by next week. I'll get onions, but most won't be very big. That's okay. I had small onions last year and they were tasty. It was wonderful to have a fresh supply of onions without going to the store. I should, at least, get 4x as much this year.