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Post by Al on Aug 23, 2014 4:10:18 GMT -5
Here in the U.K. numerous varieties of shallot are sold by the seed merchants. Mostly as sets for spring planting, I grew Golden Gourmet & Red Sun this year. Some are meant to planted in the Autumn, I have Jermor & French Grey on order for an October delivery. I also ordered some Allium Chinense bulbs (known as Rakkyo in Japan), apparently this small multiplier is widely grown in the Far East & has a pleasant garlic flavour, it is mainly used for pickling.
For many years I have grown an evergreen multiplier which may be Allium cepa Perutile, ( I call them Scottish Sybies), it is extremely useful as a green onion & can bulb up to almost the size of a shallot given good soil & regular division / re-planting. Very easy, reliable, pest / disease free, & very rarely flowers.
I would dearly love to get hold of some good Potato onions & hope I may get some of Kelly Winterton's crop this year. Also very interested in trying I'itoi multiplier. Anyone with spare bulbs or seeds please get in touch maybe we could arrange a trade.
Alex
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Post by billw on Sept 17, 2014 17:07:06 GMT -5
In addition to setting lots of seed, 6/8 varieties of potato onion set bulbils this year. I've never seen that before. Maybe I just wasn't looking closely enough. For all that, the crop wasn't that great. Opinions vary on how much flowering affects potato onion development, but I'm going to side with the camp that says it is best to cut the flower stalks if you main goal is to eat the onions. Yields have been much better in the years that I removed the stalks.  |
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Post by philagardener on Sept 17, 2014 20:53:22 GMT -5
This year the ones I let go to seed did not yield as large clusters or bulbs as the ones that didn't, so it does seem to be a decision to make. But that wasn't really a surprise, either. I didn't get any bulbils on my stalks, however. Funny how much of this may be triggered by environment. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.
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Post by kazedwards on Sept 17, 2014 21:30:56 GMT -5
I have not had the pleasure to grow this yet but if they are anything like garlic(and they seem to be) it has a lot to do with environment. This year my garlic produced a lot of flowers which produced true seed. I am sure that 99.99999% of it was environment. We had a very cool start to the summer in the 70s and low 80s with a good rain once a week and a wet spring. I'm sure that there is a good amount that we can do as gardeners but not as much as Mother Nature. I love reading all of your experiences with these. I am a huge fan of Kelly's work and it is really cool to hear about all of your in the present rather then the past with Kelly's.
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Post by kevin8715 on Oct 4, 2014 13:45:28 GMT -5
Kelly's 2014 bulbs/seed for potato onions is up. Might order another pack to have a more sizable gene pool for selection.
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Post by kevin8715 on Oct 4, 2014 14:03:27 GMT -5
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Post by templeton on Oct 10, 2014 0:49:15 GMT -5
Just a quick update on my Green Mountain Spud Onion growout. I grew out a couple of dozen GMs last year, harvested the bulbs, and replanted them in autumn 'plant-to-row'. They are doing really well at the moment, but thought I should report on flowering status (forgot the camera, hrmph). Two or three of the 'lines' are prolific flowerers where every clone is in bud, while very few of the the others have any flowering clones at all. From this evidence, prolific flowering is heritable, and not particularly driven by enviro conditions - at least in this case.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of phenotypic variation apart from flowering - There is a little variation in the color of the leaves, and what appears to be white and pale brown bulbs.
Was wondering if I should try a cross to some other alliums - maybe Creamgold (a selection out of Pukekohe longkeeper) only because I've got a pot full that didn't get planted out that are just budding up, or maybe Holly's Mills Creek if I can convince them to initiate flowering a season early. Would be nice to get red into my lines. My non-bulbing topset onions have swelling nodes, so was wondering about a cross with them - but I'm not sure what I'm after...
And on another note, Raymondo was kind enough to forward to me some other TPOS from another source (not Green Mountain related). I sowed the seed a few months ago, and the little seedlings have just been pricked out into cells.
T
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Post by richardw on Oct 10, 2014 14:26:19 GMT -5
Within my Green Mountain Spud Onion bed i'm not noticing any variation in the color of the leaves at this stage,but they are certainly growing well  |
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Post by kazedwards on Oct 11, 2014 1:07:05 GMT -5
They look great Richard and your soil looks wonderful to work with. I enjoy hearing about everyone's progress.
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Post by kazedwards on Oct 11, 2014 1:15:35 GMT -5
How do you guys start your potato onions? Do you direct seeds them or do start them with other allium in late winter/early spring? If you start them in the spring do you plant a few in each cell or scatter across a tray like onions? This year, with onions I scattered them in an egg carton and it was a pain to separate when it came time to plant out.
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Post by philagardener on Oct 11, 2014 6:12:56 GMT -5
I had the best results starting them indoors by directing seeding into sterile seed-starting mix in January/February (N Hemisphere) and growing under lights. Duplicates that were cold treated had lower germination rates, so I will not do that again. I didn't sow thickly so separating them was pretty easy, and by the end of the season they generated single bulbs similar in size to what I got back from replanted Green Mountain bulbs that had multiplied (3-4 per nest for me). Not even close to templeton 's beauties, though! Good luck! |
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Post by richardw on Oct 11, 2014 12:57:36 GMT -5
Mine were autumn sown in a tray and planted out a week later,they certainly handled been outside in winter well.
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Post by templeton on Oct 11, 2014 19:56:25 GMT -5
I tried both autumn and spring sowing, but its relatively mild where I am. They were sown thinly into flats, then pricked out into cells. I grew them out in an unheated greenhouse, and transplanted in early spring.
T
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Post by richardw on Oct 11, 2014 23:58:33 GMT -5
Given how well they did here outside through winter they would do even better for you T
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Post by richardw on Oct 12, 2014 23:40:05 GMT -5
From been bitten off by a rat to this,never seen such long leaves on a garlic before,each leaf is a fiction short of 1m long,wondered if growing in the tunnelhouse has made the plant grow them this long. Ive now put it outside now for the summer  |
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