|
|
Post by richardw on Apr 11, 2012 16:37:47 GMT -5
For 20 years ive been growing California Red onion for seed and have never seen a onion with flowers such as this,this photo was taken two season ago.  As the season went on small bulbs started to develop on a flower head with no true flowers at all.  Once we hit Feb i cut the heads off and a few of the bulblets planted, within two weeks there were up.  They went through winter well and as the following season (season just past) progressed more onion with the strange heads showed up   The ones that didn't produce top set bulbs went on to grow normal onions  So the plan now is to divide it up into three one block has been replanted and are up now,second block will be sown with bulblets in spring to see if they produce more of the same,or a flower head,or just grow in to normal onion, and lastly the third block will be of the onions above also planted in spring,this is to see what kind of flower head they produce. |
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 11, 2012 16:41:17 GMT -5
I love photos like that!!!! Thanks.
Have you ever had any bunching onions blossom?
I am wondering if this is a hybrid with a bunching onion....
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Apr 11, 2012 16:50:03 GMT -5
I was wondering that Joseph as i grow the tree onions also,but i spent a bit of time during the season looking over them at the flowers and noticed that they had no stamens and also bees and flies dont seem to be drawn to tree onions flowers like California Red ones.
I think its just a mutant plant that first threw that strange head and that i'm managing to keep it going by selecting it further.
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Apr 11, 2012 17:13:14 GMT -5
Just been out and taken some photos. This is how the second generation of bulblets are looking as of today  This is where one of onion stems fall over and some of the bulblets ended up on the ground.  |
|
|
|
Post by diane on Apr 11, 2012 17:29:41 GMT -5
A few years ago an onion like your first mutant was being sold by the
Dutch bulb industry. They called it "Hair".
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Apr 11, 2012 18:16:23 GMT -5
Hair ornamental onion does look a bit the same,only difference been it has the bulblets at the base of the hairs where mine are at the end  |
|
|
|
Post by ottawagardener on Apr 11, 2012 19:00:29 GMT -5
I wonder if it was cross pollinated by something else. My understand (and it is far back in my memory) is that top setting onions were a cross between two onion species. Corrections?
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Apr 11, 2012 20:19:31 GMT -5
Some sort of cross pollination would certainly be something that one would suspect in this case but what makes me think that it isn't is that surely the following generations of that cross throw some degree of variation,wouldn't they??,i know its only been two generations so far but the onions that didn't produce a stem grew into a normal looking stock standard California Red onion.
If it is the result of a cross,well thats fine because i could quite well be on the verge of developing a whole new variety of onion here,and what a idiot proof way to grow an onion
|
|
|
|
Post by ottawagardener on Apr 11, 2012 21:02:14 GMT -5
I suppose it would depend on the alleles involved and their dominance, lack thereof or the level of chromosomal polyploidy but heck, who knows!?! It's cool though.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 11, 2012 23:28:55 GMT -5
richardw: Am I reading correctly that some of the bulbils produced bulb onions and some of the bulbils produced tree onions? I wonder if it was cross pollinated by something else. My understand (and it is far back in my memory) is that top setting onions were a cross between two onion species. Corrections? [A. cepa X A. fistulosum] == [Bulb Onion X Bunching/Welch/Scallion Onion] ==> Egyptian (Topsetting) Onion. Sorry i don't know which species provides cytoplasm. |
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Apr 12, 2012 0:59:31 GMT -5
No the tree onions are separate all together,grown in another part of the garden.
How it went was,season of 2010-2011 within the main seedbed,one single plant produced bulblets from which 20 were planted in Feb that summer,these 20 went through winter in the ground on into 2011-2012 season,from these 20, five grew bulblets and the rest grew on to a normal onion.
|
|
|
|
Post by oxbowfarm on Apr 12, 2012 4:38:42 GMT -5
That sounds like you definitely had a bud sport type mutation since it didn't fully penetrate to all the bulblets. So some of the bulblets had unmutated California Red genetics and the rest had the punk rock tree onion mutation.
|
|
|
|
Post by ottawagardener on Apr 12, 2012 7:49:33 GMT -5
Oh okay. I get it now. Interesting.
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Apr 12, 2012 8:27:11 GMT -5
Could there have been a single cross in 2009-2010, the seed of which produced the (F1) bulbing flower, which ....nah, doesn't work, the F1 didn't produce flowers to get fertilised and segregate out...so, a bud sport - how exciting!
My reading a few years ago suggested that bunching onions/ topset onions were a complex, long-in-cultivation lineage, that was very difficult to unpick, with a number of suggested antecedents. Some bunched, some didn't, some topset, some didn't, some hade fertile material, in varying shades, some didn't. All very messy.
T
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Apr 12, 2012 15:26:31 GMT -5
That sounds like you definitely had a bud sport type mutation since it didn't fully penetrate to all the bulblets. So some of the bulblets had unmutated California Red genetics and the rest had the punk rock tree onion mutation. ;D i like it Yes it will be interesting to see if the second generation of autumn sowing bulblets increase in numbers towards the punk rock mutation,bare in mind ive increased the number planted to 40,so back in generation (1) 25% mutated ,in generation(2) i would need more than 10 to indicate that this percentage has in fact increased. |
|
