Can I plant this? It appears to have already attempted to plant itself in my basket o’ onions.
(How does one prevent this? I have quite the fertile basket o’ onions.)
Is there a planting schedule I need to follow? Is it too soon? Too late? When do I harvest my onion crop?
I’m all gung ho. I’m gonna grow me some onions!
Spring is when they naturally sprout. Since you already have a “forced” bulb, I’d say plant it now.
As far as keeping them from doing that, I have no idea. I tend to buy fertile garlic and potatos.
I have that problem with garlic and potatoes too! (and onions) I’ve been tempted to just plant it and see what happens. I don’t exactly know how garlic and onions grow- are the in ground like potatoes? would you plant it with the green part up or down? are they the roots or the plant?
If you don’t keep them stored all together, I don’t think they sprout as readily. But I don’t remember how to store them–I just remember reading about it in Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” (which I think you would love–check the library!)
Emily – Is that why in all the old movies, they show onion and garlic hanging from the ceiling in some kind of mysterious scallion chain? I’ve always wondered 1) how and 2) why they did that.
I am by no means an expert on these things, but I’m learning. The green part is part of the plant and needs to grow above ground. I think with onions as with potatoes, you need to give it a pretty big hill of soft dirt to grow in because that’s where the veggies will form. With potatoes, you only need a part of the potato with an “eye” to actually grow. I learned in “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” that there is some sort of internal timer for these root vegetables and they want to sprout in the spring.
As far as the braided onions, I know that is a storage technique. You dry the onions on their stalks, then french braid them into a rope that can hang in your root cellar or your kitchen from the ceiling. I think (as long as the onions don’t have a high sugar content) they will store all winter without problem. Most of the onions and potatoes we buy at the store were harvested last year and stored through the winter. My FIL used to braid onions on his families farm. He is one of the few men that I know that can quickly and deftly french braid a girl’s hair!
If you plant it, it will produce seeds and then you can plant them next year and have a big crop. I have a few onions that are sprouting so I am going to plant one. Onions are one of the easiest things to grow – they just need a lot of water.
You need to ask MrsB about growing onions and garlic, as well as braiding them. She’s the expert.
I store my onions in the fridge so that this doesn’t happen. Maybe there’s a good reason not to store onions in the fridge that I don’t know about (I don’t know very many people who do!), but I haven’t noticed any adverse effects to flavor, texture, etc. – they just seem to last much longer than they used to in my pantry. Hope this helps!
i have always wondered about this too…i am going to try it next time one of mine starts to grow wild.
Yes, the garlics, onions and potatos will all grow underground.
Either garlic or onion are members of the allium family. The part we eat is the bulb–just like when you plant tulips. And garlic flowers are actually VERY pretty.
I just can’t plant mine in the backyard because the podengo digs up all my bulbs and brings them to me. And garlic/onion is toxic to them.
Susan is right. It won’t make onions. It will make a FLOWER, which will, hopefully, make onion seeds. (And Joanna is right, I have grown just a few onions and garlic in my day.)
Onions have a 2-year life cycle. The first year, they make a green stalk, followed by a bulb. At this point, the stalk dies. Then we tend to eat them.
If you leave them in the ground (or plant them..), the next year, they make another green stalk. Then they make a flower. Then they make seeds on the flower head. And the bulb goes bye-bye and the whole thing dies.
There are a couple exceptions to this in the onion family, but that’s the life cycle of the ordinary grocery-store onion.
P.S. The little onion sets you can buy in the spring (that look like tiny onions) are in fact onions that have had an abbreviated first year of growing. Sometimes they finish growing and you get a nice big onion. Sometimes they flower and you get nothing… depends on the climate and probably how they were created in the first place.
Carrots & radishes have this same type of life cycle, if you care.