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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

>> Same goes for onions, right? I thought I needed to cut off the green 
> sprouts
> or stalks developing on the onions. Went online and learned that it's too
> late. 

Not exactly the same.  Onions and garlic are dedicated biennials but for 
garlic the particulars of biennialism are more like guidelines than rules.

Onion sets are onions in their *second* year of the two year cycle.  They 
have no intenion of  making bulbs but rather are hell bent on going to seed.  
A 
very small set thwarts that somewhat in that the onion assesses its situation 
and realizes that here in its second year it doesn't have enough resources to 
succeed at maturing seeds, so it tries to expand the bulb somewhat before 
going 
to seed.

To get large bulbs you need to plant seed.  Alas, that needed to have been 
done last October for bulb onions this spring, so most gardeners use slips.  

Remember:  from slips or seeds, the onion is in its first year of growth
                   from sets the onions are in their second year of growth

Garlic is more cavalier about the whole thing.  While the onion has no 
intention of preserving the bulb past the second year (why you cannot grow 
storage 
onions from sets), garlic is seting on seed and preparing the bulb to endure 
the winter all at the same time.  That is, as Rob mentioned earlier, those 
little things that look like miniature onion sets that form on the seed stalk 
of 
garlic, if you plant them, you will get a garlic scallion with a single bulb 
like an onion and it will not send up a seed stalk.  This is because it is 
its 
first year of growth.  Our usual trafficking with garlic is perpetually in 
its 
second year of the cycle.  We plant the cloves and the garlic has two 
motivations (unlike the onion's one), it wants to expand and differentiate 
the bulb 
into cloves AND send up a seed stalk.

Sometimes even onions planted from slips or seeds will panic and send up a 
seed stalk.  For green onions or bulb onions, I've never found it 'too late' 
when the scape appears.   This very morning I cut a basket of onions scapes 
which 
I am going to pickle.  I expect the bulb onions to continue to grow (some) 
and the scallions to be bewildered a bit but stay in usable condition for 
several weeks more.

As for garlic, it generally (as do onions) grow the bulb first and then stop 
that and grow a seed stalk.  But I've found that if I remove the seed stalk, 
it changes its mind somewhat and grows the bulb some more.  At worst you will 
just have diminutive garlic bulbs.

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