Allium fistulosum cultivars?

[atash]

OK, this might be a bit confusing. Bear with me. My understanding is that Scallions aka "Green Onions" are Allium fistulosum in part.

You can tell which ones, because they are evergreen (some people grow them over the winter and harvest them in the spring), and because if you let them keep going, they never form a significant bulb--they just have a fleshy base that doesn't bulge.

I think some Scallions are essentially Shallots or something similar. They eventually form little bulbs. They're not completely evergreen, going dormant for part of the year. In my climate, late summer.

I have some Allium fistulosum from seed, no cultivar name, just came as "Allium fistulosum", that I grow as a year-round herb, but I'm disappointed. The plants produce fewer, fatter leaves than I would like--they basically look like bulbless onions. I am guessing it was bred to be more of a mild, onion-like vegetable for its bases, not its leaves. What I would like is more, more slender leaves.

I'm guessing I just got a less-than-optimal cultivar. Can someone suggest a better one for my purposes?

Has anyone grown the variety "Evergreen Hardy White"? That sounds like it might be a better choice.

Much obliged.

[canadamike]

You are getting in an area that kind of fascinates me. It is a new thing for me, really, since although I have grown many of these kinds, I did not appreciate them to their full value until a few years ago, when I had moved from where I grew them.

I have grown many, don't even recall all the names, sorry, but they all looked pretty much like all the same thing to me.

Slender leaves is kind of a spring thing for them in my neck of the woods. Thicker leaves seems to be the destiny of these plants as they get further in the season. I might be wrong, there might be cultivars that contradict this affirmation, but it sure seems logical that for a perennial crop leaves get bigger and thicker as the plant ages.

Last winter, I ordered many species of alliums from Grin, even had the onion curator help me select, then I split my seeds equally into 8 parts and sent 7 of them away to members here.

My own plantlets got lost in a quasi-hurricane that ripped my greenhouse apart and sent everything growing away on neighbours land, I lost everything, but there are people here with seeds that are worth exploring.

Can't tell you anymore who they are, my puter died. I am not that computer savvy and back ups are a weird thing to me...

One thing is sure my friend, perennial leeks are something that have the ''ATASH'' name writen in their genetic make up.

Man, they are so freakishly gastronomical, so delicious they are an aphrodisiac.

If you want some, I'll make sure you get bulbs next spring. Unfortunately, I was in Europe with Tom when the seed harvesting period came about. But if you want great gastronomical alliums, next spring is your best bet. Get ready to offer them space, you will need some, I doubt you will ever grow or eat regular leeks after them. They are the ancestor of elephant garlic, so you'll even have garlicky bulbs to eat , with great leeks on top of them.

Want leeks? Cut them above ground and they will regrow. Want mild garlic? Take a whole plant out and get leek leaves and a garlic bulb...

This will be all be due to our friend Orflo. The damned man knows how to eat good...

[ottawagardener]

For early, perennial onion greens, I always rely on topsetting 'Egyptian' onions or a A. Cepa that is perennial called Sperling Toga, which so far has survived my winters:

www.seedsanctuary.com/root-crops/detail.cfm?ID=88

Both have much larger leaves and I prefer the flavour of topsetting onions to bunching onions at the moment. However, there are lots of cultivars still to try!

[wholeed]

A. fistulosum varieties are also known as "Welsh onions" which helps to distinguish them from other "spring onions." They aren't from Wales, though, they're from China or Siberia (No one is sure - They've been cultivated for over 1000 years.) They are very popular in Japan, so you can get even better results with the search terms "negi" and "nebuka." I'm not sure what this board's commercial content rules are, so I won't mention any companies that specialize in these, but you should find several. Some cultivars include: Evergreen White Nebuka, Heshiko, Ishikura, Ishikura Improved, Kyoto Kujo, Menegi, Parade, Red Beard, Shimonita Negi, and Tokyo Long White. I haven't grown these (yet) but I like the idea of plants that can fend for themselves! Other "multiplier" onions include Egyptian onions, aka walking onions and potato onions. These are alliums, but not A. fistulosum. Don't take any of this too seriously, because I wholeheartedly agree that is IS confusing. Hope this helps.

[rowan]

I have a patch of 'Giant Chinese Spring Onions' in at the moment which I am collecting seed from. I am really happy with them and will continue to grow them. Unfortunately I have lost the original seed package so I don't know where I bought them or the species name but they could be the ones that are also called 'Goko' perhaps.

They are just like other spring, or green onions in that they don't form a bulb but are much bigger.

[zeedman]

Several years back, I did a trial of nine A. fistulosum cultivars. Some were commercial, others were heirlooms offered through SSE. I was trialing how well they would winter over in my climate, the degree to which they would multiply, and the size of their stalks. Those with the widest stalks (Welsh, Evergreen, Red Beard, Shimonita) were the least winter hardy, and divided little if at all. Their stalks were exceptionally wide, anywhere from 3/4" to over 1" - they reminded me of leeks. The heirlooms Franz and Stevenson had stalks about 1/2" wide, were very winter hardy, and divided into 4-5 stalks in their second year. Both were similar in size & appearance to my walking onions. (The two were indistinguishable, and may be the same cultivar.) The variety Four Seasons had the smallest stalks, wintered over well, and multiplied heavily - forming clumps 2" wide the second year.

Most of the trial was given away or tilled under the second year, to make room for other things; I kept only one of the heirlooms (don't know which of the two it is, call it Franz), Evergreen, and Four Seasons. Sadly, our exceptionally wet May & June proved to be too much for the Four Seasons, and it died this year. After sending someone half of my "Franz" last year, it has divided again to form two clumps about 6" wide - in my book, this is the best compromise between size, hardiness, and multiplication. It is flowering now, so I should have plenty of seed later this year. I cut off the flower heads from Evergreen to prevent crossing, I will save seed from that one next year.

Personally, I still prefer the flavor of walking onion scallions to those of bunching onions. The larger bunching onions have huge leaves, too large IMO to use them. All I used was the stalks, and hilled them up to blanch them.

[steev]

I've planted some of these out this year, but my log is on the farm; I'll check.

[ilex]

I grow them as perennials with very high weed preassure. Fantastic plants. Taste varies from variety to variety.

I'll try to get seed this week if it has not fallen yet.