Walking Onions, Catawissa? Red Top? Tree Onions?

[kazedwards]

I checked the flowers on the walking onions today. They are starting to dry down and I plan on picking them in a few weeks. I also have some bulbils on one of the largest plants that are getting huge. They are bigger than most of the bulbs. The only bulbs that are bigger a the bulbils parents.

[philagardener]

Those are pretty amazing, Zach!

[reed]

I have had my walking onions for a long time. Until last year I never noticed them bloom at all. I also never really cared for them at all, they just mostly grew and moved around on their own so they may have bloomed before and I never paid attention. After discovering the forum I got interested and "kinda, sorta" took care of some last year and they bloomed a some but didn't make seed. Last fall I planted some spaced maybe six inches apart and have actually kept them weeded and cared for. Some are making full bloom heads and no bulbils like this one.

 

Some are making some bulbils and some floweres, like this one. 


Some others are not doing anything except getting bigger,no flowers or bulbils either one. Always before under neglected conditions they always made four or five marble sized bulbils to fall over or plant. 

I'm wondering, especially on the ones that are not making bulbils if I might get seeds this year. I'm also wondering what to do about some other onions, of unknown kind that were planted last fall to eat green and never got harvested that are maybe a day or two from opening flowers. If the walking ones can pollinate themselves and the other are also in play, I won't know what the offspring might be. If I take out the others to avoid crossing and the walking ones can't pollinate themselves then I won't get any seeds at all. Especially since the others lived through winter just fine I am leaning toward just letting them do what ever they are prone to do and then having fun seeing what grows from it. 

[kazedwards]

Those are some great pictures. Hopefully we will both get seed

[reed]

Here are some of those same onion flowers today. 


Sure looks like those little pods are swelling up. The other onion nearby didn't open in time to have crossed so if there are seeds in there it isn't a cross. I found one that I must have knocked off by accident and it had tiny white tings inside that must have been seeds, my camera skills are not good enough to get pictures of them.  Others in the fuller flower heads are doing it too but the ones that had a few flowers on individual stems are the biggest. The only other thing blooming is leeks and I think they are a different species. 

[richardw]

Looking good, should get seed there hopefully

[kazedwards]

Jun 16, 2016 14:55:21 GMT -5 richardw said:

Looking good, should get seed there hopefully

The flower heads had dried down enough that I brought them in to dry the rest of the way. It doesn't seem like I will get any seed. I didn't see any that had swelled. I'm not sure if they need a pollen donor of just sterile.

[reed]

A lot of flowers on mine have dried up and obviously have nothing in them. The swelled ones are still very green.

[kazedwards]

Well the AC went out list night. Lucky for us it was only in the 80-90s today. Last night it got down to the upper 70s to which helped. For the last month it's been in the high 90s and was over 100 a handful of days. Very glad it happened when it did.

Anyway the walking onion patch is right next to the AC so I took the opportunity to thin out the patch. They are currently dormant but that will only last about a month. I divided all of the nest in to single bulbs and replanted the largest 20 or so. I'm impressed with the size of a lot of them which was 1" or more. Most where a torpedo shape do to crowding from the nest dividing.
This was average nest size.


All of them lined up. The area in the back right by the AC is where they came from. A few got to go back too.

The scapes/stalks came from the bottom of the bulb instead of the center. I have heard that it is a plus for storage.

Here are the largest bulbs. I mentioned this cluster earlier in this thread.

Here is all of the left over onions.

I spread them out on a screen to dry.
I also have a ton of extra bulbils to.

I'm thinking I will see how they store and offer them up to share this fall once it cools down.

[kazedwards]

I also noticed this. Not sure what to make of it but a lot of the clusters had it. All of the bulbs in the nest were attached. It's like a main root almost.

[steev]

Lucky you, having had a productive harvest and reason to expect a productive year to come.

[philagardener]

Those look great, kazedwards ! Drying on screening is excellent - you probably want to spread those bulbils out too, so they don't mold.

[reed]

Yep, looking good. I don't think mine are quite ready to dig and I'm still waiting to see if I get some seeds. The ones with lots of apparent seed pods have dried up and pretty sure there is nothing in them. The ones that had a few on individual stems remain hopeful.

[templeton]

I've got to start selecting for bulb size on my multipliers, mine are so tiny compared to these.
T

[reed]

Some of my onions this year did not make any bulbils or flowers either one, don't know that they ever did that before. I pulled one up thinking it might have a larger bulb that they usually do and it does but only slightly and you can see it is starting to divide. Typically if left in the ground they divide into clumps but still always made bulbils. The only difference is this year I planted individual ones with wider spacing and took better care of them instead of leaving them to their own devices. Are their any kinds that make large bulbs more like other onions? 


Egyptian onions, walking onions, treetop onions, multiplier onions? Can someone explain  what the difference is or if there really is a difference? 

kazedwards, want to swap some bulbils this year? Don't look like I'll have a whole lot but can spare a few.