Egyptian Walking Onion

[PotterWatch]

Anyone else have this? I have some in my herb garden and it's a very cool onion. I cut off some of the tips and use it like scallions. Do the bulbs ever get very big? We didn't have a whole lot last year so I didn't want to dig any up but it has spread pretty well so far this year so I might dig some at some point.

 

[lesa]

I think I still have some- if the chickens haven't dug them up! Do you mean the bulbs on the top of the plant? Mine stay around the size of a dime, for each individual bulb. They do not get bulbs in the ground like a regular onion does. They really are a cool plant!

 

[baymule]

@canesisters sent me a start of them last year. I planted them and they have been growing all winter. They are now starting to get the stalks that the bulblets will grow on. I haven't eaten any because I wanted to make sure I had "seed" to grow more.

 

[journey11]

I love my walking onions too. They just totally take care of themselves without any help from me. I've got mine tucked into a sheltered corner beside my house and most winters I can get green onions until a hard freeze comes. The baby onions stay small. You can use them as pearl or cocktail onions.

 

[Carol Dee]

What Journey said! We mostly eat them as green onion. They wont grow into big onions.

 

[Wishin']

Cool, you all got me curious about this Egyptian walking onion so I looked it up. That is really neat, and strange.

 

[Wishin']

Oh and off topic I know, but do any of you have wild onion growing where you are? They grow their bulbs at the bottom (in the dirt) and are about the size of a spring onion. When I was little I was always told it was poisonous to humans, do any of you know if that is true?

 

[baymule]

No, I don't know if that is true or not. But I have a big patch of them on the creek bank and my horses won't eat them. I also have a patch of mandrake and they don't eat that either, and I do know those are poisonous. Maybe horses are smarter than the average bear, right Yogi?

 

[Wishin']

I know the onions aren't poisonous to goats and sheep, they eat it like it is the most delicious candy, they go nuts about it. The goats wont eat the bulbs, just the grass, but the sheep LOVE the bulbs.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Oh and off topic I know, but do any of you have wild onion growing where you are? They grow their bulbs at the bottom (in the dirt) and are about the size of a spring onion. When I was little I was always told it was poisonous to humans, do any of you know if that is true?

We have wild onion here, and while IT is edible, i wouldnt dig it and eat it because we also have mountain death camas. And often i see them in mixed clumps. So...no wild onion for me