Topic: onions

[danny_lewis]

a good way to start of your onions is in a greenhouse, just until you see the shoots coming through and then plant them out, that way you will get good results at the end, i personally like stutgarter giant (i think that is how you spell it) they are huge

[kenkew]

If people have greenhouses like mine, Danny, I doubt they have room for onions as well as all the other stuff. Good point tho'. Personally, I just stick 'em in the ground and get busy with what needs more attention.

[ruud]

I agree with kenkew,my greenhouse and both cold frames are stuffed with other things than onions.I sowed today some variaties of onions,namely:walla walla a sweet onion from the states and i have read that the origanilly come from australia,ishikura from japan,thats a so called bunching onion.Today i also read a e-mail from the states,adressed to me from a tradepale overthere,that he had send some egyptian walking onion bulbs to me.FIngers crossed that the arrived well at my place.

[gavin]

That's taking environmental soundness a bit far!  Walking - all that way?  They'd better be b****y miraculous onions!  :) :) :)

Good luck with 'em though - Gavin

[Wicker]

Wasn't going to ask in case everyone else already knows, but is there a reason for them being "walking" onions ??? (creeping or even climbing I could possibly just imagine but walking is so specific!!)

Having spent a good 2 hours this afternoon on my knees putting God knows how many onions in at exact spacings (that precise husband of mine again!!) I really hope they won't be "walking" tonight.

[john_miller]

A.k.a., in the U.K., as tree onions or Welsh onions, Wicker. They are sterile onions that, instead of producing flowers, produce bulblets at the top of the flower stem. These swell, causing the stem to fall over. The bulblets then root into the ground and the cycle starts again. Hence the onions 'walk'. With a roughly two foot flowering stem annually they would take a very long time to 'walk' the Atlantic!

[philcooper]

John,

Are you sure that Welsh Onions are the same as the Walking onions?

My Welsh onions are more like chives with attitude. They flower and produce seed but are quite a bit chunkier than chives

Come to think of it I've seen Welsh Onion seed offered for sale

[Wicker]

Thanks for the explanation, John - I should have known there would be one and it actually seems logical!!

[tim]

For what it's worth, these are Welsh onions. They have typical large allium flower heads. And are perennial. = Tim

[ruud]

Hi everybody,welsh onions are not onions but a chives variaty,one of the biggest.John is right about the propagating of the egyptian walking onion.It never flowers and so there are no seeds.Its propagate by making small onions at the top of a leave,when the grow the bulb gets to heavy and the leave bend over to the ground where the young onion drops of or grows further when it reach the soil.After a couple of years un dissturbed growing the onion walked to the otherside of your allotment.

[john_miller]

  Oops. Growing up in the South-East I always heard them called tree onions. I understood, mistakenly obviously, that out in the provinces some referred to them as Welsh onions. In New England they are called tree onions too, I have never heard them referred to here as Egyptian walking onions, although I was aware they were called that in other areas.
 Both Welsh and tree onions are Allium cepa, true onions.

[philcooper]

Sorry John,

According to the RHS (and others) Allium fistulosum is commonly known as Welsh Onion in many countries - welsh in this case meaning foreign, as they originate in Siberia. A. fistulosum is also known as Japanese onion in the UK and Japanese bunching onion in many countries


The US Egyptian onion is A. cepa but the UK Egyptian onion is A. cepa aggregatum

The US Tree onion is also A. cepa but the UK Tree onion is A. cepa proliferum

The RHS hasn't heard of Tree onions!!