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Post by Rebsie on May 4, 2010 16:33:42 GMT -5
Last year I grew four varieties of onion from seed and a tray of them got left out all winter. Despite the unusually long harsh winter a few small bulbs survived and re-sprouted in spring - one of each variety. There is a red Italian one called Cipolla di Genova, a 200-year-old British variety called James' Longkeeping, and two old French varieties, Rouge Pâle de Niort and Rose de Roscoff. I thought it might be fun to let these four survivors flower and make a random hybrid between themselves. It may not work but I thought there would be nothing to lose by trying. I've never done any breeding work with onions - or any other outbreeder for that matter - so it would be educational if nothing else. I was hoping they might flower at approximately the same time, but no such luck. Three of them are getting on with some leafy growth but Rouge Pâle de Niort just went whoopeee! and grew at twice the speed of the others, and in the last couple of days has unveiled the beginnings of a flower stalk. None of the others show any sign of being ready to flower. My question then: do I remove the flower stalk to slow it down and give the others a chance to catch up? Or will that screw it up completely?  |
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Post by mjc on May 4, 2010 21:24:18 GMT -5
No, don't cut it back. Often, onions (as in most of the time), only send up one flower spike, so cutting it back destroys the chance.
I'd just stick with the three that are seeming to be keeping pace with each other and try again some other time/next year.
James' Longkeeping sounds like one I'd be interested in.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 5, 2010 2:49:29 GMT -5
Perhaps you could "save" some of the "WHOOPEE" onion pollen and apply it to the slower ones when the opportunity presents? I have no idea about the keeping properties of pollen, but seems to me you could probably put it in a glass container in a moderate temperature room where it would be dry. Or, if you have a bit of pure bee's wax, make a small sort of pot for it out of the wax. I'm looking forward to hearing of the results!
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Post by ottawagardener on May 5, 2010 11:35:39 GMT -5
Moving into alliums huh? Outcrossers need more enthusiasts! Salt Spring Seeds has a grex of onions called winter party mix or something like that. Sounds fun.
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Post by Rebsie on May 5, 2010 12:22:32 GMT -5
No, don't cut it back. Often, onions (as in most of the time), only send up one flower spike, so cutting it back destroys the chance. I'd just stick with the three that are seeming to be keeping pace with each other and try again some other time/next year. James' Longkeeping sounds like one I'd be interested in. Thank you, that's what I needed to know ... if onion flowers are a one-hit wonder then I'll just have to leave them and see what happens. If I do this again I'll grow a larger sample size. If you want to send me your address in a PM I can let you have some seeds of James' Longkeeping. It was bred by a market-gardener near London in the early 1800s and used to be very popular over here for its good flavour and exceptional keeping qualities. But we have these insidious seed trading laws in Europe which mean that once it fell out of popularity it plunged into near extinction. Very hard to find seeds for it now. |
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Post by Rebsie on May 5, 2010 12:29:25 GMT -5
Jo - that's a nice idea. I don't know how long onion pollen keeps ... nor how long it will take the others to catch up. But I'll consider giving it a go.
Telsing - yes that does sound fun. I like the element of randomness that outbreeders have, though I guess it also makes things frustrating. I kind of became a pea specialist by accident so I like to experiment with crossing other things, even if only for my own amusement.
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Post by robertb on May 5, 2010 12:48:39 GMT -5
Most pollen will keep for a few weeks at least. Keep it dry, and store it in the freezer. If you google 'pollen storage' there's plenty of info out there.
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Post by raymondo on May 7, 2010 19:41:08 GMT -5
Rebsie, I found an article about pollen storage in tomato relatives in which it mentioned that onion pollen stored at 0°C and low humidity remains viable for two months.
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Post by Rebsie on May 8, 2010 11:37:33 GMT -5
Thank you Robert and Raymondo ... that's really helpful. Two months should be ample time to get some flowers on the other varieties. I'll give it a go.
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