Can i cut the tops off my onions while they are still growing?

Question

They say that you should step on the onion tops to continue growth in the bulb. Can i just cut the tops off instead of stepping on them?

Answer 1

NO!  if you cut them, the onion bulbs will stop growing and the plant will try to grow the stems back.

they need the sunlight to grow, that's why there's two parts to the onion.

Answer 2

NO! if you cut the tops off the onions will die.  The tops should not be cut off until the onions have been harvested and dried.  However if you get seed pods on the top of your onions you can snip them off to prevent the seed from falling gall over.  Also I have never heard of stepping on onion tops to keep them growing.  What I do is continually remove the soil around the onion .  This makes them larger.  they should be watered regularly until mid August and then left to mature.

Answer 3

What the !!?? Well out her in SoCal we cut the tops back to get the onions moving along. They respond by adding on to the bulb and produce new leaves from the center. We do it all the time, it will NOT kill them. Cut them off at about 4" and this will leave the center portion untouched. They grow back amazingly fast.