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Post by fulenn on Apr 25, 2009 13:02:44 GMT -5
Recently saw a report of a person buying several cloves of garlic and dividing them for planting.  [/quote] Ah! Martin, Martin,Martin ! We have to explain everything to you  The guy lives the fast life in the city and he needs to rush things. Simple...he is planting spaghetti sauce  As for the ''head'' of garlic, it might be some french influence. In french we use the expression ''tête'' ( head in english ) for garlic. Probably because garlic and onion are all over in french cuisine, the term bulb goes with the onion and head for the garlic, as to mark a difference, but that is kitchen talk. In the garden, the garlic reverts most of the time to being a bulb  [/quote] ;D ;DLOL!! |
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Post by PatrickW on Apr 25, 2009 15:18:25 GMT -5
In Dutch and German (probably other germanic languages too) they call garlic cloves 'toes'. This annoys me when they translate it directly instead of properly into English... Toes of garlic? It just doesn't sound right.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 25, 2009 22:30:41 GMT -5
I dunno Patrick. I kinda like toes... in Spanish it's "dedo". Saying "toe" works for me...  |
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Post by ottawagardener on May 13, 2009 8:32:14 GMT -5
Really? I think I'm going to say that from now on. Divide your garlic head into toes... and plant each toe firmly in the ground.  |
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 13, 2009 8:51:57 GMT -5
hmmm... Head, toes, planted.... nothing like head in the sand, right? ::laughing::
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Post by robertb on Jun 2, 2009 16:31:57 GMT -5
I haven't worked out how to post pics here, but I've posted pics of my walking onions on my blog at thisandthat-robert.blogspot.com/ . Can anyone tell me which type I have? I didn't realise until I found this site a couple of days ago that there were different types. |
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Post by paquebot on Jun 2, 2009 23:32:20 GMT -5
I haven't worked out how to post pics here, but I've posted pics of my walking onions on my blog at thisandthat-robert.blogspot.com/ . Can anyone tell me which type I have? I didn't realise until I found this site a couple of days ago that there were different types. A few on the left appear to be sending up a secondary stalk from the topset cluster. The only one that regularily does that is the Catawissa strain. Martin |
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Post by robertb on Jun 3, 2009 2:15:06 GMT -5
Is that the one that turned up in Canada? I'm interested in any history I can discover.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 3, 2009 21:49:16 GMT -5
Is that the one that turned up in Canada? I'm interested in any history I can discover. After having looked closer at those which I'm growing, yours looks more like what I call True Egyptian. That's the one where mine had its origins somewhere in Canada. That makes sense with longtime UK and Canada ties. It's bigger than the ordinary Red Egyptian and indeed is waist high. The only way one could tell for certain is to grow topsets of both side-by-side. I'm doing that right now with what may be yet another "new" one. With the Egyptian walking onions having been grown so long and under so many different conditions, it's only natural that a new strain may pop up every 50 years or so. Martin |
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Post by PatrickW on Jun 4, 2009 3:19:23 GMT -5
After having looked closer at those which I'm growing, yours looks more like what I call True Egyptian. I've read now a couple of places now the Egyptian Walking Onion is really originally from Iran. |
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Post by robertb on Jun 4, 2009 5:42:10 GMT -5
After having looked closer at those which I'm growing, yours looks more like what I call True Egyptian. That's the one where mine had its origins somewhere in Canada. That makes sense with longtime UK and Canada ties. It's bigger than the ordinary Red Egyptian and indeed is waist high. The only way one could tell for certain is to grow topsets of both side-by-side. I'm doing that right now with what may be yet another "new" one. With the Egyptian walking onions having been grown so long and under so many different conditions, it's only natural that a new strain may pop up every 50 years or so. Martin Any chance of some sets of Red Egyptian? These types are very little known in the UK; the one I have has been circulating as 'Egyptian Walking Onion', and it's the only one I've come across. They're so weird-looking I want to try as many types as possible. |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 4, 2009 6:01:12 GMT -5
How do "walking" onions compare with "regular" onions for bulb size, flavor, and keepability? After tomatoes, onions are something I use a ton of and so far have not had much success. I did ok planting sets in containers early last fall. That kept me in greens and now I've been pulling the small bulbs and using them as well. They've been in dirt 7 months now and the largest was about 2" across. The flavor is good so I'm not complaining, but to keep me from buying them at the store, I need a LOT more than that.
I am interested in the walking onions because the wild onions in Florida, where I grew up, had similar habit and were edible. We didn't eat them though because they were to sweet.
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Post by PatrickW on Jun 4, 2009 6:42:26 GMT -5
Walking onions are perennial, and most interesting if you let them grow and just cut off the greens. In particular, the greens can be very nice in early spring, because it can be hard to find other good onions around that time. The greens don't keep very long, so this probably isn't well suited as a commercial crop.
Yes, you can eat the bulb, and it can taste very good, but propagation efforts can be rather high. Also, because it's perennial, storage isn't really the issue because you can just leave it in the ground and dig it up when you want. I'm sure you will never consider these a good substitute for going to the store and buying a bag of onions.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 4, 2009 11:17:56 GMT -5
I think you are right that they won't substitute for the bulbs, but I use a LOT of greens as well and THAT makes these sound right up my alley! I planted onion sets in buckets last fall with the hope of having enough greens to go through spring. The bulbs didn't get huge, but that's not an issue for me. However, I do realize I go through a LOT of greens. Maybe the walking onions would be a good thing for me.
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Post by robertb on Jun 4, 2009 11:56:11 GMT -5
My onions are about shallott size, but I've been bulking them up and I haven't tried any yet. I'll have a crop this year though, and then I'll see whether I want to grow them for bulbs or greens!
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