But some years we get caught out and this is one of them. Our onions have bolted which means they have gone to seed. This is very annoying as it reduces the size of the bulb and the onions won’t store.
We grow onions from heat treated sets because they are less likely to bolt than those grown from seed. Some varieties are less prone to bolting than others and I always buy sets which have the AGM mark. None of this seems to have mattered this year!
Onions are a biennial plant which means that in the ‘wild’ they would form bulbs the first year and then set seed the next. However, if there are strong fluctuations in temperature eg winter, then a warm spell followed by another cold spell, the onions think they are in their second year. So they set seed. We did have a warm spell at the end of the winter and then it turned very cold so our onions must have become very confused.
Another reason onions bolt is lack of water but we do monitor this carefully and the beds have lots of organic matter to help retain moisture.
As soon as I saw the thickening stems - a sure indication that there is trouble in the onion bed - I was ready for action. When the seed head started to form, I nipped them off but the onions still won’t be very good. It is damage limitation, we might get a little bit of onion to chop up.
The shallots in the raised bed are still okay and we should have a reasonable crop from them. If I had the choice, I would prefer to lose the shallots simply because they are fiddlier to prepare! I suppose I should conduct a trial to see which onions suit our local climate the best but I am not that organised, nor do I have the time. In any case, the weather every year is so variable.
Leeks can occasionally bolt too and although we find the odd one or two trying to set seed, they are fine. So, fingers crossed, this year, apart from some shallots, our alliums will be long and lean rather than short and bulbous.
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