Walking Onions

[heirloomgal]

How to Plant and Grow Egyptian Walking Onions | Gardener’s Path

Egyptian walking onions are easy to grow and produce tasty underground bulbs as well as topsets. Learn how to grow these unique alliums now on Gardener's Path.

gardenerspath.com

Darn, I planted mine deeper than what this article suggests!
Well, .

 

[digitS']

I have a few walking onions near the chives. I no longer remember where they came from ... or, why . They are much too strong flavored to be appreciated.

No mention of shallots ? This year, with its downsizing, must be the first time in over 3 decades that I haven't had shallots. They are seriously missed. Recent years have been this mess over several seasons of growing offspring of what was originally a French hybrid variety. With every saved seed episode, they were more diverse and further from the original French type. Well, I say "original" but I certainly don't know what the parents were of the hybrid.

I have never grown potato onions but with so much change but still small multipliers, I wondered if maybe that was a parent. Anyway, the good thing was that they still had a shallot flavor. So, i didn't lose much by messing around . However, knowing what the harvest will look like and a consistency, adds something positive to my gardening experience.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman you know onions!! Thanks for this info, I feel like I know I what I'm growing now! Maybe time to start experimenting with onions, I have a friend whose gotten very into perennial vegetables so I'm getting drawn in too.

and here we go! i really like onion flowers and also eating onions (we eat a lot of onions - to the point that a lot of people mention that when we give them food that perhaps we can use less onions... ).

 

[heirloomgal]

I have a few walking onions near the chives. I no longer remember where they came from ... or, why . They are much too strong flavored to be appreciated.

No mention of shallots ? This year, with its downsizing, must be the first time in over 3 decades that I haven't had shallots. They are seriously missed. Recent years have been this mess over several seasons of growing offspring of what was originally a French hybrid variety. With every saved seed episode, they were more diverse and further from the original French type. Well, I say "original" but I certainly don't know what the parents were of the hybrid.

I have never grown potato onions but with so much change but still small multipliers, I wondered if maybe that was a parent. Anyway, the good thing was that they still had a shallot flavor. So, i didn't lose much by messing around . However, knowing what the harvest will look like and a consistency, adds something positive to my gardening experience.

Steve

You don't eat the green walking onions? I grew shallots once many years ago, but they didn't seem to taste very different from the onions - which were bigger. I might feel different now though; do you feel the flavor difference is really significant?

 

[digitS']

... walking onions? ... shallots ... do you feel the flavor difference is really significant?

Some Springs, we make some use of the walking onions, once or twice.

I certainly enjoy the flavor of shallots. We ate onions alot when I was growing up. Really, we still do. Perhaps, my thinking on shallots and onions is partly that the flavor of onions is so commonplace.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

I don't think I ever grew shallots, although I might have without knowing it. I grew several heirloom multiplier onions, and the larger ones (which might have been shallots) were not winter hardy in my climate. There might be a gray hazy line between shallots & potato onions.

There were two very hardy multiplier onions that I grew for years, which when Fall planted, formed nests of 5-8 1" onions. I had hoped to breed them to increase their size, but they were wiped out the same year I lost my garlic collection. The garlic was replaceable... sadly, the onions were not.

Since 2022, I have been growing some crossed offspring of Kelly Winterton's large potato onions. I suspect that Kelly's onions were not very hardy, which is the reason no one seems to have them now. I had hoped to breed something hardy from the crossed seed I received, but due to my life changes, that project never received as much attention as it deserved. The 2023 onions over wintered indoors, and I planned to test their winter hardiness in the garden next year, after a stock increase. But the weather derailed that plan, and all of my stock died this year waiting to be planted. Apparently onion breeding is poorly suited to my climate.