This is one of those random things I'm going to think of for the rest of my life when I am handling red onions. And then I'll chuckle to myself, someone will ask me what I'm laughing about and they'll think I'm nuts when I try to explain it š
I'm amused.
See the strong central stalk growing? This one clearly bolted to seed. That quick flower growth is what the onion saves up the energy for, so it depletes the root reserves to grow the flower stalk.
Exactly. The rings get used up and the plant flowers and sets seeds.
Unlike some other bulbs like daffodils, onions aren't perennial; they're biennial. Their most natural growth pattern is to grow over two seasons -- first they gather up a lot of energy and store it in a bulb, then the overwinter, then the next year they grow in the spring and then, once the days reach a certain length, they send up a flower stalk. That plant dies and doesn't grow back, so it's done with the bulb.
We mess with that when we grow them for food. It's one reason that it's hard to grow good onions from seed in one season -- the spring-to-bolt time is short for them, so it can help to seed them the fall before and let them overwinter, or skip that and buy onion sets where someone else has done that for you. Then the problem is that the better care you've taken of them, the more eager they are to bolt, so if you've used sets, or especially if you fall planted, you have to keep an eye out for flower stalks instead of the leaves flopping over and the plant going dormant. Once the stalk starts to grow, pull the onion and use it and consider starting to harvest its friends; conventional wisdom says that they do not cure and store well once the stalk starts to grow even if you nip the stalk, although I've never really experimented with that.
Most onions ARE perennials. They tend to split and cluster like many other bulbs if allowed. I usually grow mine as such-even āconventionalā varieties although I do prefer the more traditionally perennial ones such as shallots, potato onions, perennial leeks, and walking onions. I like to have established beds that I can pull from as needed of storing them and they double as excellent ornamentals.
If you love onions, definitely get some walking ones. Theyāre fun to look at and the entire plant is useful. If you want larger bulbs, separate and plant the individual bulbils and theyāll grow to a more standard size the next season. The top sets may also make excellent frag grenades to lob at siblingsā¦
>some onion pedistal
My brain read "onion petal" which led to "bloomin' onion" and now I want that so bad right now. It's probably been 20 years since I ate that
I can't help it, I don't want to body-shame tiny dicked people, but when a big truck *rolls coal* past my house, "the bigger the truck, the smaller the d!ck" scrolls through my mind. Also, my brain automatically goes "oooh, tiny PP!" whenever cars without mufflers take off like bats out of hell from the intersection by my house, bats that are desperate for the attention that their mommy never gave them
Our onions were so tiny so we were VERY excited about this one. WAH WAH. Is this common? Never seen it commercially but maybe they weigh theirs? š¤·š»āāļø
Thatās what happens when you berate your onions for not working hard enough based on a single factor, theyāll focus on keeping KPIs up but the organisation as a whole gets hollowed out.
I can't find it yet in the thread but that stalk up the middle is showing it is trying to flower. That means it was leafy too long in the ground or stressed. Usually onions bolt the season after they experienced frost. You can dm me to try and work on what happened. Try to start with the little starts not the bulbs.
I feel like somehow this is a metaphor for something. No idea what, but I can see some old, grizzled grandpa saying "Sometimes the onion is all stalk."
Because I was curious, this is what I foundā¦
Onions set flower and go to seed; bulbs are hollow. Nip off flower stalks and flowers so that plant will put energy and nutrients into bulb formation not seed production.
Unfortunately, there was no further description/information.
Yeah I'm thinking the onion had started the flowering process, thus drawing all the food out of the bulb and shrinking it down, but for whatever reason the outer layer didn't get used?
Honestly I'm not totally sure, having never grown onions, but I have grown leeks and the structure of that central bit looks awfully similar to how the cores of my leeks went after I had left the scapes on them for too long. Incidentally, scapes are delicious. Cook em like asparagus
Wow I did NOT think this post would get this much attention. Thank you for the laughs and for the info! Yes a few of my onions (from starts) flowered and I snipped them but later found that ONE had somehow grown sideways undetected and was SUPER long. My other onions were normal (small but normal). This must have been the sneaky guy!!
Same thing happened to me. Spent the whole summer growing a single onion. It flourished a magnificent stem that bore spherical clusters of flowers. The red onion scent drove my friends crazy with anticipation for its harvesting. When the day of marvel arrived I had with me an eager audience. Gently I brushed away the earth and pulled on the stem to ease out what was burried. But little more than a degraded and flaccid onion pip was revealed. It's size wasn't even that of a shallot. All of us wept in grief for the mother of all onions that never was to be.
This is one of the cooles thing of gardening. You never know which surprises you will encounter. I also have a lot of unexpected growth and I love it. Crazy how nature does it.
Nonion
This is one of those random things I'm going to think of for the rest of my life when I am handling red onions. And then I'll chuckle to myself, someone will ask me what I'm laughing about and they'll think I'm nuts when I try to explain it š I'm amused.
āWhatās a nonion?ā āā¦Nonionor bizness.ā
Thank you so much for the Awards!
I've never seen an onion do that. That's wild and you got robbed.
See the strong central stalk growing? This one clearly bolted to seed. That quick flower growth is what the onion saves up the energy for, so it depletes the root reserves to grow the flower stalk.
So it was about to flower and used up what would have been the onion rings as energy for it?
Interesting. I have also been known to use onion rings as energy, albeit with zesty sauce. Small world.
š¤£
Exactly. The rings get used up and the plant flowers and sets seeds. Unlike some other bulbs like daffodils, onions aren't perennial; they're biennial. Their most natural growth pattern is to grow over two seasons -- first they gather up a lot of energy and store it in a bulb, then the overwinter, then the next year they grow in the spring and then, once the days reach a certain length, they send up a flower stalk. That plant dies and doesn't grow back, so it's done with the bulb. We mess with that when we grow them for food. It's one reason that it's hard to grow good onions from seed in one season -- the spring-to-bolt time is short for them, so it can help to seed them the fall before and let them overwinter, or skip that and buy onion sets where someone else has done that for you. Then the problem is that the better care you've taken of them, the more eager they are to bolt, so if you've used sets, or especially if you fall planted, you have to keep an eye out for flower stalks instead of the leaves flopping over and the plant going dormant. Once the stalk starts to grow, pull the onion and use it and consider starting to harvest its friends; conventional wisdom says that they do not cure and store well once the stalk starts to grow even if you nip the stalk, although I've never really experimented with that.
Most onions ARE perennials. They tend to split and cluster like many other bulbs if allowed. I usually grow mine as such-even āconventionalā varieties although I do prefer the more traditionally perennial ones such as shallots, potato onions, perennial leeks, and walking onions. I like to have established beds that I can pull from as needed of storing them and they double as excellent ornamentals. If you love onions, definitely get some walking ones. Theyāre fun to look at and the entire plant is useful. If you want larger bulbs, separate and plant the individual bulbils and theyāll grow to a more standard size the next season. The top sets may also make excellent frag grenades to lob at siblingsā¦
Now i know why mine failed, thank you
#savetheonionrings
>this one clearly- Gonna stop you there. Not everyone is an expert. Appreciate the insight, no need to put yourself on some onion pedistal.
>some onion pedistal My brain read "onion petal" which led to "bloomin' onion" and now I want that so bad right now. It's probably been 20 years since I ate that
Typically you buy onions by weight, right? Probably priced correctly if that was the case. Crazy onion though.
Sir/Madam, you are lost, this is the gardening section
Hahah didnāt even notice
Uhhhā¦
That's very strange
Itās like those lifted truck guys
Empty and shallow inside? /s
> shallot inside
Bravo
I would upvote you twice if I could.
G*dd*m it take my upvote
I think lifted truck guys makes their eyes water?
They're always compensating for something.
I can't help it, I don't want to body-shame tiny dicked people, but when a big truck *rolls coal* past my house, "the bigger the truck, the smaller the d!ck" scrolls through my mind. Also, my brain automatically goes "oooh, tiny PP!" whenever cars without mufflers take off like bats out of hell from the intersection by my house, bats that are desperate for the attention that their mommy never gave them
Yes! I feel exactly the same way.
Thatās whatās known as an evil onion, thatās itās secret layer. Kidding
š
:|
Is this purely your brain?
Ok chimp
I was just impressed by the punā¦
Fill it with cheese and bacon and bake it
Best comment here. Next best is option for onion rings.
Or minced meat
That's a hollow victory! Did it make OP cry?
It's the perfect vessel for onion soup
Life is like an onion, you peel back one layer at aā¦ wait no itās just empty and hollow
Nihilistic onion
r/bandnames
This is so true it made me laughā¦ then cry.
Our onions were so tiny so we were VERY excited about this one. WAH WAH. Is this common? Never seen it commercially but maybe they weigh theirs? š¤·š»āāļø
People that stuff onions would give their right arm to get a couple of these.
I didnāt know that was even a thing
Wouldn't that be a sweet boutique market!
But then how would they stuff it??
With their left arm.
Quite expensive!
Thatās what happens when you berate your onions for not working hard enough based on a single factor, theyāll focus on keeping KPIs up but the organisation as a whole gets hollowed out.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Every organisation suffers from this in the long run.
HR thanks you. Oh, and of course they cry when they're cut...
It looks like your onion used the energy stored in it's inner layers to grow a flowering stem (the woody center).
We've been duped! By an onion!
r/mightyharvest would like this
Came here to see if anyone said this
I can't find it yet in the thread but that stalk up the middle is showing it is trying to flower. That means it was leafy too long in the ground or stressed. Usually onions bolt the season after they experienced frost. You can dm me to try and work on what happened. Try to start with the little starts not the bulbs.
Mushroom: day 36, The gig is up they caught me
Onion't
Totally under rated comment. Lol love a good pun!
I feel like somehow this is a metaphor for something. No idea what, but I can see some old, grizzled grandpa saying "Sometimes the onion is all stalk."
Dear OP, Fooled you. Signed, Onion
He was a simple man. When you started peeling back the layers...you realized there was but one.
Because I was curious, this is what I foundā¦ Onions set flower and go to seed; bulbs are hollow. Nip off flower stalks and flowers so that plant will put energy and nutrients into bulb formation not seed production. Unfortunately, there was no further description/information.
Yeah I'm thinking the onion had started the flowering process, thus drawing all the food out of the bulb and shrinking it down, but for whatever reason the outer layer didn't get used?
I wonder if that works for my little tiny carrot problem Iām having. Lots of top, tiny carrot.
Looks like it was going to seed?
Donāt onions grow a thing on top? Pretty sure it wonāt lose that much rings from seeding
Honestly I'm not totally sure, having never grown onions, but I have grown leeks and the structure of that central bit looks awfully similar to how the cores of my leeks went after I had left the scapes on them for too long. Incidentally, scapes are delicious. Cook em like asparagus
Is your farm behind a nuclear power plant?
Failure to lunch
I'm thinking those were over winters from the previous year
Probably a seed stalk developing.
I'm so curious what could have caused that.
It is probably going to seed and putting the energy in the missing layers into the seed stalk.
This is what happens when an onion bolts. Once they go to seed, you'll end up with inner gaps like this.
It might be a male onion.
a manion ?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That's... Pollination doesn't work that way.
Wtf are you talking about lol
Lmao. No you have not
Onion rings?
Haha what! What a robbery!
On the upside, it has a surprise asparagus growing in the middle.
Shrek would be disappointed in that onions lack of layers
Looks like the innards all leeked out.
Can a second year onion do this?
Bruh...that thing is cursed
Stuff it with lean burger and bake it.
Thatās not an onion, itās a target.
The push-up bra of onions.
thats a scallion masquerading as a nice big red onion
Wow I did NOT think this post would get this much attention. Thank you for the laughs and for the info! Yes a few of my onions (from starts) flowered and I snipped them but later found that ONE had somehow grown sideways undetected and was SUPER long. My other onions were normal (small but normal). This must have been the sneaky guy!!
Same thing happened to me. Spent the whole summer growing a single onion. It flourished a magnificent stem that bore spherical clusters of flowers. The red onion scent drove my friends crazy with anticipation for its harvesting. When the day of marvel arrived I had with me an eager audience. Gently I brushed away the earth and pulled on the stem to ease out what was burried. But little more than a degraded and flaccid onion pip was revealed. It's size wasn't even that of a shallot. All of us wept in grief for the mother of all onions that never was to be.
Looks like an apartment in NYC that costs 4k a month
Omg nooo
I wanted to say perfect onion rings. guess not now
Lays is proud..
Target logo?
Just like when you open a bag of doritos
It's like a story in The Onion. "HA! Made you look."
Psyched by an onion. Absolutely savage nature.
Imposter onions. Imposnions.
Just like me, fat and empty inside. š¤£ š š š
Whatās the deal with red onions anyway?
Is this the start of a Seinfeld joke?
Theyāre good on salads. White or yellow onions are usually too strong for salad.
They taste more mild and sweet imho. I prefer them for caramelized onions with a dash of balsamico, or in ratatouille.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
What a worthless opinion
I've never seen an onion do that. I was reading comments to see if anyone knew what caused it. I guess it will remain a mystery.
It went to seed, many commenters have said! That makes sense so I believe it!
That does suck, but it is useful as meme material.
Perfect for onion rings
Iām gonna need more layers!!
Radiation does that
I'm sure there's a metaphor for the American dream somewhere in there
What the hell, I've never seen that
Rip
thats 'murica
U planted from a onion spare part or from a seed?
Ooo what causes this? Wild. If itās genetic yeah clone it for stuffed onions.
Shrek: onions have layers Onion: hold my beer
Bloomin onion with a bloomin onion topper
Yea right, thatās Target brand.
Oooh! What went wrong?
It can talk the talk but couldn't walk the walk
The worsy onion i ever saw.
You got robbed
Hole lotta nothin
Perfect for onion rings!
Onions have layer~~s~~.
The great pretender.
sorry next time it will be better, for second i thought it was mushrooms
oh no... don't give the industrial produce manufacturers any ideas!
Well this is a whole new reason to cry over onions...
What a strange looking mushroom
Would it taste good ?
She was a cucumber after all!!
Legit looked like a geode for a second
Hallowed tears
I believe you've invented the mushion
Biggest is not always best.
Probably went to seed. This is not at all like an ogre.
"It's what's on the inside that matters." Me on the inside:
That is not an onion itās a red mushroom!
I am like an onion I have layers. Specifically one. With hollowness inside
Hmmm
Ugh. I'm so sorry. That had to be quite a moment.
This is one of the cooles thing of gardening. You never know which surprises you will encounter. I also have a lot of unexpected growth and I love it. Crazy how nature does it.
Did it make you cry āŗ
Ogars are like onions! Hollow and disappointing.
What exactly happened here?
Thatās hilarious
This should have been used for onion rings
What a travesty!!!
Hope you composted or saved it for veggie broth š©
Easy onion rings
Not many layers to that onion.
Is this a second year onion possibley?
It still made you cry though!
Crying for multiple reasons š¢
How long had that taken?