Left over bulbs from seed planting

[zeedman]

This year, I grew a crop of Newberg onions for seed; they were the bulbs which had over-wintered without sprouting, since I am selecting for longer storage. When I harvested the seed heads last month, the original bulbs had rotted... so after cutting off the heads, I pulled out the (apparently dead) stem clusters & left them on the ground to rot.

Except they didn't. Today I was in the garden, and found that while the outer sheath of the bulbs had rotted away, it exposed clusters of small bulbs within that are still viable. Most are attached on the side to a dead seed stalk, and closely resemble the walking onions I harvest as bulbs.

I'm sure that some on this forum who have grown onions to seed. If so, have you found bulbs remaining such as I have described? Are they good for anything? I am wondering if they could be over-wintered indoors to be used as sets in the Spring, or if I should just eat them (they are about the size of shallots)?

[raymondo]

I haven't but my son has replanted these 'smaller' onions after the seed head finished. They behaved like sets and grew bigger. They didn't get a chance to repeat the effort because they got eaten once they got to an acceptable size.

[haslamhulme]

Sounds like your onions really want to grow.I had the same thing happen on a 2nd year Red Barron(somehow missed it last year).The bulb rotted away and all I got was a lanky spring onion thing which grew from the base.

Raymondo did yours actually grow new bulbs?.

I did some reading and found out that some people actually make use of this tendancy,in Spain they grow something called calcots,like a blanched spring onion by replanting the bulbs,seems like a good way to make use of bulbs you know aren't going to make it in storage,bolted.damaged or too small to be much use.I was planning on trying it out next year to see if it can work in our wetter uk winters,the whole thing might just rot away but figure it's worth a shot as space isn't as much of a premium over the winter and one made it last year. I have a few Senshyu Yellow which bolted and I used for seed heads,they made multiple new growth points from the base after the flower spike was cut so I'm going to earth them up in a pot and see what happens as a bit of a test run as it seems a bit late to plant direct now and I only have 3 or 4.



Link below tells you how

www.catalangarden.com/grow-your-own-calcots.html

[richardw]

A red onion that i grow called Medbury Red when planted out during late winter for seed production will split into four or five segments, most times only a couple of these will send up a flower stem while the rest grow into a full size onion, the Pukekohe long keeper on the other hand wont do this and will grow a flower stem from every segment.