[canwickplot]

Hi all. I was wondering if any of you were experts in the causes of bolting? I'm interested in learning more about the different causes of bolting, but also the different bolting traits of each plant variety. Anybody know if a decent website that can answer these questions?

Cheers

[peapod]

Do you want a specific plant CP? Itd be hard going to find a lot of specified non/bolting varieties for some, not even just UK climate but others too..never mind the wealth of plants available anyway

If you could narrow it down a bit, then everyone could be more specific (hopefully)

Foe example, in my case, I wouldnt plant red onions again. They arent suited to me (or more specifically my plot) but flourish in other localities

[Trillium]

Bolting actually refers to the plant's lifecycle at which it needs to create seeds. There's no way around it as its part of the natural cycles. In most cases, plants 'bolt' aka go to seed, in their second year. In the case of onion sets where the young bulbs have partially grown earlier, the planting time and amount of daylight will affect whether the bulb grows on to an actual onion or tries to seed (Peapod's case). Other plants are simply early season growers and once heat hits them, they'll seed regardless of what you do, or if you leave harvesting them until too late (broccoli, etc). A few seeds are simply inclined to produce a seeding plant that year.
Some people mistakenly say that strawberries bolt, but they don't. The berry is the actual seed 'container'. The runners they produce is the natural cycle for seeking fertile soil.
Is this what you were looking for?

[canwickplot]

Cheers, actually I'm referring to plants going to seed prematurely. For example, some of my Chard plants have bolted after being in the ground for a very short time and others haven't. The ones that have were kept in pots for a long time while I waited for ground to become free. Both sets of chard were actually sown at the same time into modules.

I was wondering if the natural cycle would be affected by root stress. I understand that all plants go to seed in one way or another, and I regularly leave certain plants in the ground in order to make use of their seeds in subsequent seasons.

Some people say that I should keep the ground moist with certain plants; is this true and why does it affect the life-cycle of one plant and not another. For example, I've hardly watered my onions this year at all, but they haven't bolted.

[savbo]

i haven't come across a website that covers it (sure there are v technical plant physiology ones out there) but root stress is certainly part of it. I suppose there are 2 types of bolting - the type casued by stress (eg dry spell) that makes a plant go to see early, and the type where day length just triggers the normal response?

M

[chimaera]

Many veg (chard, most root veg, brassicas) are naturally biennials; the start to grow one year and overwinted as small plants, flowering the next. Many of these naturally flower June-July and so set seed and germinate late summer, so are quite young when they stop growing to overwinter (spring cabbage follows close to the natural lifecycle). If you sow seeds in Spring (as is usual), the first growing season is longer than natural and the plants would, if selective breeding had not tried to stop it, flower the same year (bolting). Although plants are bred not to bolt, they still will if their genes "consider' it would be better to reproduce early. This may happen when the plant is stressed by drought, heat ect and it may not survive so tries to flower quickly, or if it is too healthy and growing so well that it can reach full size in one year.

Charlie