[victoria_plum]

Hmm..  first attempt at growing onions this year, a red variety.  They have been doing so well, but now we have two flower buds/seed buds forming at the top.  What does this mean, and what do we do?

Any help really appreciated.

[lucywil]

basicaly its bolting, which just means going to seed. it could be down to the dry weather, just cut the flower stalk off and it should be fine.

[skywalker]

Once they have bolted they wont store later so when you lift them you will need to use them!

[victoria_plum]

Would I be better pulling them now and using as salad onions - I have no idea what they will be like under the soil.  I can see a deep red colour at the base of the stem so whether there is any king of fleshiness there - who knows!!  When do onions usually harvest?

[SG6]

Harvest is July/August/Sept.
The onion bulb will start showing about half of itself above the surface of the ground.

Red onions seem to be a bit of a problem, success with them is limited.

Best I can think of is to keep them as stress free as possible, the weather we have had will have dried the ground out so some will have bolted because of that. So watch the amount of water they are getting.

I mulched mine a couple of years back with sand, an inch or so, made a layer and reflected the light a bit.

[Goosegirl]

I agree - red onions are known for bolting and so don't keep too well. They should still give a useful crop. Give all onions a good drenching then let them dry out before more drenching. Not sure if seed grown red onions are as prone as sets. I wouold use them first if you have any other "brown" varieties. All my red onion sets have bolted this year so that's what I'll be doing.

[Carrotcake]

I've started to use my bolting red onions. They're not very big, but tender and tasty. Nice to be eating something out of the garden again 

[fatbelly]

I  had trouble with Red Onions that bolted last year.

To reduce the chance of this happening keep them watered particularly in a dry spell.
If they get stressed then they do what nature has programmed them to do which is to produce seed before they die. This year i planted mine in a rich soil that had compost from my bin dug in to keep moisture in the soil.

Does anyone know of a supplier of Red Onion sets that are heat treated I think it is worth while paying the bit extra for heat treated sets to further reduce the chances of bolting.

[victoria_plum]

Well, we are going to use them as spring onions. Three have bolted, fingers crossed for the rest.  Thanks for all your advice everyone.

[Yabba]

Does anyone know of a supplier of Red Onion sets that are heat treated I think it is worth while paying the bit extra for heat treated sets to further reduce the chances of bolting.

Moles seeds @link F1 Kamal

Not managed to find any non-f1's

¥

[Salmo]

As well as drying out, remember that we had a week of hard frost in mid May and that is just as likely to be the reason why they have bolted.