Onions are normally grown for consumption. Here you want a tuber that is as thick and firm as possible, but no flowers. However, flowers are a normal development and necessary for seed formation.
What to do when onions bloom?
Onions usually bloom in the second year of cultivation. To prevent flowering, you can use specially bred bulbs or remove flower stalks. Flowering onions can be used for seed production, decoration or as edible decorations.
The Onion Blossom
If onions are grown using seeds, only onion greens will be formed in the first year of cultivation. One growing season is not enough for the plant to produce a bulb or even a flower. The formation of a tuber can only be observed in the second year. If the bulb also produces a flower, it is a false umbel, which can consist of more than 100 individual, stalked flowers.
Preventing the bulb from blooming
If you grow onions in the garden or on the balcony for daily consumption, you don't want the onions to bloom. Therefore, breeding has ensured that the onion bulbs ripen earlier and that flowering only rarely occurs. The onions that are sold in stores have been subjected to a heat treatment after harvest (three to four weeks of drying between 30 and 40 degrees). This largely prevents bolting during storage.
Use flowering onions
Blooming onions do not necessarily have to be thrown away. They can be used in different ways:
- as a seed donor for the next generation of onions
- as decoration in the flower vase
- as edible decoration
Grow your own seeds
To do this, the onion flowers are allowed to ripen on the plant until the seeds are ready. The seeds are ripe when their capsules turn brown. Now you can harvest the flowers and cut them directly into a bowl on a dry day, as the seeds will fall out of their shells when harvesting. The seeds should be kept dry during the winter; you can harvest them at the end of February Sow good potting soil (€6.00 at Amazon).
Cutting flower stems
As soon as a flower stalk develops on the onion, it can be cut out. The onion will then continue to grow normally. The flower can bloom in the vase with decorative leaves.
Opened onion blossom
If an onion flower has already fully bloomed, the entire onion plant can be removed because there will no longer be an onion bulb. The plant's strength is used up when the flower develops. However, the onion greens can be used in the kitchen as a salad seasoning. The flower can be eaten as an edible decoration in a salad or on a soup.
