onion problem advice?

My onions also tend to do this. I gave up last year and decided lidl sell perfectly good onions and cheaply too. This year we have put some in our back garden, the soil is very poor and they seem to be doing really well. 

the majority of the white onions bolted

Red onions are notorious for bolting, so trust you to be awkward 

I take it you planted onion sets rather than grown from seed?  Onions have a 2 year cycle - growing in the first year and building up a food store to overwinter (which we harvest as the onion bulb), then it will flower in the second.  A set is just a baby onion still in its "1st year" but if you plant too early and then there is frost or return of winter and snow (espcially a harsh one), then this seems to trigger the "Year 2" stage.

There'll always be frosts in spring so it's not that easy to predict but you could plant the sets slightly later to miss the worst of the early spring frosts, and perhaps put some fleece over to give them some protection.

Quote from: salmonking on April 29, 2013, 13:17

the majority of the white onions bolted

Red onions are notorious for bolting, so trust you to be awkward 

I take it you planted onion sets rather than grown from seed?  Onions have a 2 year cycle - growing in the first year and building up a food store to overwinter (which we harvest as the onion bulb), then it will flower in the second.  A set is just a baby onion still in its "1st year" but if you plant too early and then there is frost or return of winter and snow (espcially a harsh one), then this seems to trigger the "Year 2" stage.

There'll always be frosts in spring so it's not that easy to predict but you could plant the sets slightly later to miss the worst of the early spring frosts, and perhaps put some fleece over to give them some protection.

yes it was sets I planted,it could well of been the weather that caused it then.im sure I planted them earlier last year!.as for being awkward.....I am welsh so I have an excuse!

 if you plant too early and then there is frost or return of winter and snow (espcially a harsh one), then this seems to trigger the "Year 2" stage.

I fully expect this to happen with mine this year 

Mine were in the ground in early March. Reds too

Will