I had never tried growing an expired bulb for green shoots before… worked pretty well!
Will it give seeds that I can plant or anything?
by johnlamagna
8 Comments
HumbleAbbreviations
It should give seeds. My chive plant did that due to my neglect.
UFC_Intern169
This is the moment OP found out there is no onion fairy, and new onions do in fact come from seeds produced by the flower.
InsomniaticWanderer
Onions, like carrots, produce seeds in their second year of growth which is why if you buy sets or bulbs and plant them, you’re likely to end up with flowers.
Most people start from seed though, so they never see this stage.
Ok_Career_3681
Yea onion flower. The stem is edible.
permalink_save
Yes but they are hard-ish to grow. I take the flowers and separate them and use as a garnish. They taste sweet with oniony flavor. Good for sardines on crackers.
A lot of my multiplier onions (Lorient shallots) produced scapes/seed stalks. I decided to let two of them mature so that I can collect seeds. Lorient is an F1 hybrid, so what they produce is a mystery, but I want to play around with breeding potato onions. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could perennialize a potato onion that is large, easy to peel, and only needs to be pulled to harvest or split? It’s not something private industry is going to develop for us because it’s not suitable for industrial-scale agriculture.
In order for this to produce seeds, it’s going to need to be pollinated. Can you put the plant outside?
Do you know of the variety of onion you’re growing? If you started with a F1 hybrid, then the seeds this produces will not be true to the parent plant.
Seeksp
Each of those white florets packs a lit of onion flavor. Their great in salads.
Uncanny_ValleyGrrl
Yeah, it’ll produce seeds, but it takes a while for them to develop. The flowers will close into little balls and when they dry and start opening, small black seeds about the size of sesame seeds will come out. Once you see a few like this (opening) you can cut the flower to let it dry completely to extract the seeds. FYI you can make microgreens or just grow more onions, but it’s slow going…. Works with leek too.
8 Comments
It should give seeds. My chive plant did that due to my neglect.
This is the moment OP found out there is no onion fairy, and new onions do in fact come from seeds produced by the flower.
Onions, like carrots, produce seeds in their second year of growth which is why if you buy sets or bulbs and plant them, you’re likely to end up with flowers.
Most people start from seed though, so they never see this stage.
Yea onion flower. The stem is edible.
Yes but they are hard-ish to grow. I take the flowers and separate them and use as a garnish. They taste sweet with oniony flavor. Good for sardines on crackers.
https://preview.redd.it/zzfqffptypgd1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bcd2c47e7034da49c779a63e1b5efb0f16613735
A lot of my multiplier onions (Lorient shallots) produced scapes/seed stalks. I decided to let two of them mature so that I can collect seeds. Lorient is an F1 hybrid, so what they produce is a mystery, but I want to play around with breeding potato onions. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could perennialize a potato onion that is large, easy to peel, and only needs to be pulled to harvest or split? It’s not something private industry is going to develop for us because it’s not suitable for industrial-scale agriculture.
In order for this to produce seeds, it’s going to need to be pollinated. Can you put the plant outside?
Do you know of the variety of onion you’re growing? If you started with a F1 hybrid, then the seeds this produces will not be true to the parent plant.
Each of those white florets packs a lit of onion flavor. Their great in salads.
Yeah, it’ll produce seeds, but it takes a while for them to develop. The flowers will close into little balls and when they dry and start opening, small black seeds about the size of sesame seeds will come out. Once you see a few like this (opening) you can cut the flower to let it dry completely to extract the seeds. FYI you can make microgreens or just grow more onions, but it’s slow going…. Works with leek too.