Potato Onions and True Potato Onion Seed TPOS

[mjc]

Yeah...it's a good read.

[spacecase0]

Apr 16, 2014 19:46:38 GMT -5 kevin8715 said:

A bit off topic but has anyone's true shallots flowered? I have 2 types, a generic one and holland red, and would like to cross them with potato onions. I have a similar goal to Kelly in his book of longer storing and stronger flavor shallots and vice versa.

all my true shallots flowered this year on me, none of my large bunching onions that I was replanting for seed flowered on me, and some of my I'itoi's Onions (small bunching onions) flowered.

[kevin8715]

Anyone have French Gray shallots, Allium oschaninii. I want to experiment with them but I only want a small amount. Commerical sources sell by the pound which I don't have the space for. Also, if you have any rare shallot varieties, I would like to trade for sample sizes (2-3 bulbs).

[kevin8715]

Anybody have this accession?
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1471867

[oxbowfarm]

It's seed, request it. I'm more and more leery requesting allium accessions from Pullman, or anywhere due to Bloat Nematode, but seeds and bulbils are a great option.

[billw]

All of KW's potato onions started putting up flower stalks about a month after the yellow potato onions. Even the reportedly uncooperative Dakota Red is now joining in, so I am optimistic for some good TPOS production this year. They often flower more strongly in the fall, but typically too late to collect much seed.

[nicollas]

Here too the Kellys PO are throwing flower stakes (i dont have red dakota). How do you plan to harvest seeds ? Maybe i'll cut the flower stakes and put in a jar of water, to save them from slugs

[longhorngardens]

How is the Red Dakota different from regular Egyptian Walking Onions? I googled it and did not see a clear distinction.

[billw]

This is my first year growing it, but according to KW, it is just another heirloom potato onion. From his description:

Dakota Red is an old heirloom out of North and South Dakota. Being old, it does not flower anymore. Hopefully I can catch it flowering some year to catch some of the superior genetics locked up in this variety. Dakota Red has a beautiful reddish-brown outer skin with an all white interior. It can form up to 20 bulbs per nest, but the bulbs are not uniform in size. Some bulbs in the nest are quite large, but some are smaller. This can create the option for fall-planting the small bulbs, reserving the larger bulbs for storage, and spring-planting the left-overs that haven’t been eaten over the winter. Taste is good, perhaps a bit toward the milder side. Maturity is about 100 days.

I figure I'll let them dry on the plant as long as possible and use mesh bags to catch the seeds. That has worked well for other onions. If the weather turns wet, I'll cut and finish them indoors. I hunt slugs twice a week at night with a headlamp and tongs, which keeps them under control. Plus, the onions are in raised beds, which helps a lot.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I think that there is a Red Dakota Winter Onion which is a strain of Egyptian Onion, and also a Red Dakota Potato Onion which is a bulbing onion.

[longhorngardens]

I was just looking at heirloomonions.com
I had no idea there were so many different topset and multiplier onions out there.

[oxbowfarm]

Pulled my Green Mountain as the tops were flopping over. I've got them hung in the shed curing. I am beginning to think, after two seasons with Green Mountain, that it is better NOT to replant the largest of them if the goal is large onions. I've noticed that the largest bulbs end up dividing into 7 or 8 bulbs. This ends up being too many onions in one spot and several of them end up getting pushed out the top of the clump at the center and never acheive much size at all. The medium bulbs give you 3-5 which don't overcrowd nearly as much. I think I'll still end up planting all of these for next season, but in the future I'll grade them for the best size for replanting and keep the big ones for market. Its a bit tedious bulking up your onion supply to get up to market scale production. I probably won't have Green Mountain at market much till 2016 barring disaster.



There is a little pile of the smallest onions that got pushed out of the center on the top of the pile on the left side near the front of the barrow.

[richardw]

Thats worth remembering Tim,thanks

[12540dumont]

Isn't that always the way. I get 40 seeds and I have to grow it out and replant and sometimes replant again before I have enough. They look lovely. When you get to the point that you have enough to take to market, put me on your list.

[richardw]

Like standard onions do potato onions grow larger if grown from seed as opposed to replanting the onion