Symbiosis-tomatoes and onions

In Late May 2012 after the frost warning I transplanted into my large pots- actually large whiskey oak drums which had been cut in half- Tomato plants received from one of the members of our millennium Seniors group. I thought I would also plant around the periphery of the container a variety of onion bulbs (multipliers) These were routinely watered and periodically one of the onion bulbs which now had many branches would be removed for salads. During one of the recent waterings I noticed on 2 of the containers that although the tomato vines was growing well there had no flowers and the 3rd larger pot only had 4 green tomatoes. They also contained numerous drying flowers In another portion of the back yard adjacent to the swimming pool, the small 4'X4'"garden where there were 3 tomato plans one of the plants had numerous flowers.I took photos of these findings. This finding suggested that maybe the onions release into the soil or through their green vines some chemical which inhibits the development of flowers- in this case the tomatoes. This might be a potential worth exploring. It could be useful in weed control where the success of a weed is dependent on the production of seeds. If it is indeed tied up the development of flowers i.e. with sex hormones, it might even be worth exploring in the field of animal sex organ development- who knows maybe sexual ambiguity may be a nutritional disease.

Note: On Aug 15,2012 I decided to pull out the multiplier onions as they had ripened and were no longer  green. I noted thst one yellow blue on the tomato plant had appeared. It raises the  question of whether the failure  to produce  flowers which would eventually evelop into tomatoes failed to develop because of the release of some chemical in the soil by the growing multiplier onions or the release of some volatile chemincal into the air. Evidence for the latter theory is suggested by the fact that the tops of the multiplier onions had changed from green to yellow and had also fallen down  from their erect position so if they were producing some volatile gas , it would no longer affect the tomato plant.