Hi Everybody,

For the first time, this year I planted onion sets. I don't remember exactly when I planted them (yes, I know I should write this stuff down). I believe it was sometime in early February.
I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if I got faulty onion sets, but many of them (if not most) are sending up seedstalks. I'd be interested to know what caused this, but more urgent is what can I do to salvage my onion crop?
Should I cut off the seed stalks? Will the onions produce decent bulbs anyway? Should I pull them up immediately and use what I can? Are the seed stalks edible? If so, are they tasty?

Thanx in advance,

Benjie in Western Galilee, Israel (approximately, zone 9)

It might slow them down if you keep cutting the flowers off. My onions did that one year. I kept cutting and they kept flowering. Had onions early that year. Did you know about long and short day types and which you should grow in your area? I don't know for sure but maybe that's the problem. Onion plants mature slower than sets so maybe you could try those next year. Also way cheaper(and easy) to grow plants yerself from seed.

As far as I know what causes them to send up flower stalks is the fact you are using second year onions (that is what a set is) qand onions are biennial so they are doing what is natural. I always have this problem when I use sets (which is not often, onion from seed will almost never try to make seed).

All you can do is cut them off over and over again

Last year was my second year growing onions from seed (I haven't tried sets), but they flowered on me as well. I just assumed it was due to the super hot weather we had in July, but if this is happening to you this early...Hmmmm ?:|

I cut off the seed stalks - which are super thick and hard - and hoped for the best. By the end of the season I harvested and cured them along with the "normal" ones and stored them. I expected the ones that bolted to rot in storage, but they didn't. I lost maybe 1/4 of the onion since the stalk took up so much of the inside of the onion, but they tasted the same.

I would talk to the people you bought them from. Perhaps they would know what is happening and maybe replace them?