Green onions starting to look sad

I have two planters with green onions sitting in a nice and sunny window. They've been growing nicely but I've been told to trim the tops often to use as food, especially if they fall over (food what I plan on using them for).

Ever since I've been vigilant about trimming the tops once they've grown about 4 or so inches long, the base of the plant has seemed browner and thinner, and now they're having trouble supporting even small stalks.

Am I killing them by trimming them too much too soon? I read something about how they fade after seeding but none of them had made it to that point yet when I started trimming this often. I check the moisture level of the soil with a little tester after previously killing onions due to overwatering, and these guys aren't oversaturated. I also gave a small amount of veggie fertilizer diluted per instructions on the bottle two days ago and I don't know how long I need to wait until I see a difference, if there is any.

I'm very much a beginner when it comes to any type of gardening. While I'm making this thread, does anyone have any books or websites I should be reading to understand the science behind growing plants?

 

I think that maybe you are cutting them too much. Maybe you should try and let them grow out a bit more, to try and give a bit more strength to the bulb. 4 inches seems a little short to cut them. Never cut the tiny stalk that is coming up in the middle. The more green leaves your plants have the better they will grow.I often tel my chives(green onions) start to flower, once the flowers open, and before they turn to seed, you can cut them and use them in salads, delicious and attractive. You could also let a couple grow into seed, because then you have new seeds for planting. You have 2 planters, so you can treat them differently and see which ones grow better. Try letting them grow out a bit to try and regain strength.

 

Thank you so much for the information! I decided not to clip anything today because they look so sad and have new shoots coming up that I didn't want to ruin. I hope the ones that look really poor can recover.

I was hoping to get at least one of them to seed because I have never been able to keep one alive until that point.

Do I leave it alone if it falls over? I thought that once a stalk fell over that it would die and so I needed to cut it, but as I mentioned I am a complete beginner and am just flying by the seat of my pants.

 

I think maybe you worry to much about the leaves falling over. I would suggest just be patient and let them grow for a while. If you take a photo, and upload it, maybe we can help better. By the way, dog thumbs is a funny handle.

 

I am just so scared of hurting them, I tend to overthink things. I'll leave them be to do their thing.

I was thinking of green thumbs when I was browsing this forum, but I definitely don't have those just yet. Dog thumbs sounded more clumsy and appropriate, haha.

 

Onions do not take well to inside growing. How large a container do you have them in ?

 

Like Mart said.... and get them outside. they take even cold weather very well. Onions were the first thing I saw planted up around here. I don't trim any onion tops if I want to grow a bulb. if you want green onions and don't care about the bulb then trimming and using them is fine, but it sounds like you are trimming it too much.

 

Unfortunately the reason I'm growing inside is because I can't grow outside. The weather is fine, but there are many loose cats who destroy any plants and use the dirt as a bathroom, along with a family member who has killed everything the cats did not with indiscriminate poisoning.

The two planters are 23.5x7 and 19x7.5

 

Cats do not like onions. Just put the container outside and bring it in at night. Do not prune any more. Maybe they are still young enough to recover and make a small bulb.
Poisoning what,,what was used ?

 

I haven't pruned anymore, but putting them outside is not an option. The cats dig up anything in planters and poop in the dirt.

I don't know what kind of poison, I'm guessing weed killer and ant killer. They've been told for years to stop spraying plants we want but to no avail.

The onions seem to look a little happier now that they've been left alone to grow. I hope most of them are able to recover! Some of them still look really sad but I'll just give them time.

 

How many cats do you have ?

 

There are five of ours, but I know there are at least two feral cats who come by, along with dogs who keep getting in and raccoons. I see their tracks in the sand every day even if I don't catch them out there.

 

Health update: I just checked to see how everyone was doing, and I have lost two onions. Those were definitely the ones that seemed to struggle the most.

I still have a few puny ones, but for the most part everyone looks like they're growing strong again!

There's now room in one planter for me to move some over from the other, more crowded planter. I want to move the smaller ones, but should I wait until they look like they're doing better? I don't want to shock them. I had originally planted all of them in one planter at first before realizing they were too crowded, and moved a few to a new one, and they seemed to like the space.

 

Have you tried putting chicken wire just over the soil so they animals can't dig in them? then set mouse traps on top of the wire. when they snap it will cause a "self-correction" to occur. and they will stay off/out of the planters.

 

I've tried things over the years and they've never really helped. The sun room is all I've got, that's where they're at now. Two double wide windows on two walls, and a door with a window. It gets pretty sunny in there.