Walking onion seed

[bower]

The one I have came to me as "Egyptian Onion" and has red skinned topsets. Sometimes it sets a second topset above the first one - in some cases these had flowers/seed pods instead of topsets. Others had pods among the topsets.

I was happy with how well these divided in spring - pretty much three full sized green onions for every topset I planted. That is at pretty high density. I should probably dig some now they have died down and space them out or at least see whether they have any goodly sized bulbs.

[Medbury Gardens]

These are my F2 plants in which one is producing a scape much earlier than the others, not sure its a good thing as i may not have other plants to cross pollinate it with, i see how it goes but my aim is to get F3 seed from my 10 F2 plants

[bower]

Once again this year I have flowers on the Egyptian Onions. I got no seeds last time, so rereading this I think I should remove the topset bulbs to give the flowers a chance.
I was wondering what came of other people's seed?
Also wondering what alliums would cross with the topsetters. I don't have any in flower just now, there are scapes on leeks and also coming on a perennial green onion with gold skinned bulbs, but those are well behind the Egyptians which are flowering right now. Perhaps can get them to self pollinate.

[Medbury Gardens]

Unlike garlic, tree onions seems to have stronger flowers, so i'm unsure if there is a need to remove the bulbils, but it cant hurt by wiping them off.

Ive only managed to get to the F2 stage, but i will try again this coming summer though

[bower]

Thanks, Richard. I removed a few small ones, where there were a lot of flowers cw a few topsets, and just left the ones that had mostly topsets and a few flowers. I will just let those mature for planting and not worry about the few little blooms. Most of them seem to be producing a flower on the second stalk above the first round of topsets. They were close enough together to brush a few flowers against one another hoping to get the cross pollination going... haven't seen any pollinators on these although maybe it was the wrong time of day. They have a lot of competition in the herb garden, so many things are flowering just now.


I was reading that there is a topsetting type of shallot. Now that would be really cool to have! Maybe my shallots will produce some flowers next year, or eventually! on a year that the Egyptians do, and if/when that happens I'll try to create one.
Your white skinned bulb looks pretty cool btw. Look forward to see more of your growout.

[Medbury Gardens]

Thats something i noticed too, no pollinators, not even flies.

[Tormato]

My seed, from last year, was not quite mature. So, nothing germinated this spring. I removed the topsets from about a dozen plants this year, and found just one single flower that produced seed.So I have 4-5 seeds that look better than last year. On a side note, if you happen to be out among the walking onions when the flower enclosures are almost completely brown, the ones that may contain seeds will still be green.

[Medbury Gardens]

I'm some pleased to see others trying to stabilize the tree onion clone too, well done guys

[Medbury Gardens]

I have discovered that in my climate if the bottom onion are planted to late in spring they dont grow flowers amoung the top set bulbils, so at the moment I have no flower to which I can rey and get seed from.

[DonDuck]

I've always grown my onions from purchased sets. I do it because I know they professionally grown and they should be fairly disease free and specific to the type I want to grow.


I have always wanted to grow the walking onions in a bed away from all other allums and not be concerned about cross pollination. One reason I haven't is the fact that I have have a lot of wild onions on my property and I'm not sure if they would cross with the walking onions.

[bower]

There were no flowers on mine the past summer, either, Richard. So I guess cold temperatures/late springs may discourage it too.
@DonDuck, you don't need to worry much, afaik, about cross pollination from walking onions. Perhaps because they are an inter-species cross (A cepa aggregatum x A fistulosum iirc), they don't produce viable seed very easily, and likely wouldn't cross too readily with wild onions at all, which would likely be some other third species. Not saying it is impossible, but not something you'd have to worry about.

And if they did produce a rare cross, it would be something very cool!

[rxkeith]

don,

if you are growing walking onions, you will be multiplying them either from the small
bulb divisions growing below ground or from the top sets that are being produced.
neither one will be cross pollinated since they would be considered clones? perhaps
of the parent plant.



keith

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by Medbury Gardens

I have discovered that in my climate if the bottom onion are planted to late in spring they dont grow flowers amoung the top set bulbils, so at the moment I have no flower to which I can rey and get seed from.

I always have about 2/3 of my plants as 1 and 2 year old transplants, with about 1/3 as new transplants. Problem solved. I'm not sure, but I think all three year classes flower heavily. Searching for and forcing seed by picking off young topsets are the problems.

[DonDuck]

Originally Posted by Tormato

I always have about 2/3 of my plants as 1 and 2 year old transplants, with about 1/3 as new transplants. Problem solved. I'm not sure, but I think all three year classes flower heavily. Searching for and forcing seed by picking off young topsets are the problems.

If I plant any onion plants even close to two years old, most of them bolt before the bulbs are fully formed. After they bolt, they are basically worthless for me because they don't store well.

[Tormato]

These are walking onions, much different than regular onions. The main plant will produce scallions, more bulbs, and topsets for 3 years, maybe more.