Tree onions

[chriscross1966]

Hi folks,

thought I'd share a copuple of pics of one of my tree onions... it's the only one that seems to be doing the "tree onion thing" this year, the others are all trying to race my Kelsaes to a big bulb... ho hum....






As you can see frmo the second one some of the bulbils already have smaller clusters on top of them.... hopefully by August this one will be putting on a proper show :-)


chrisc

[chriscross1966]

[saddad]

Looking good though...  :)

[chriscross1966]

Looking good though...  :)

Yeah, I wish the rest of them would get on with it though.... they're unlikely to beat a Kelsae for size .... ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

How many years have you been growing them on for? Mine didn't reach full size - waist high with massive clusters of bulbils - until the third season from the original bulbils. Those look like what the Americans call 'Catawissa'. They were found on an abandoned homestead in Canada, but I suspect someone had taken them over from the UK. They're the only onion I've been able to discover which has clusters of secondary bulbils above the main cluster, and I seem to see that on yours.

At some point I'm going to have to import an American Catawissa, grow it, and check that it really is identical, but I don't think there's much doubt.

[chriscross1966]

How many years have you been growing them on for? Mine didn't reach full size - waist high with massive clusters of bulbils - until the third season from the original bulbils. Those look like what the Americans call 'Catawissa'. They were found on an abandoned homestead in Canada, but I suspect someone had taken them over from the UK. They're the only onion I've been able to discover which has clusters of secondary bulbils above the main cluster, and I seem to see that on yours.

At some point I'm going to have to import an American Catawissa, grow it, and check that it really is identical, but I don't think there's much doubt.

Hi RObert, this is the first year I've had them but they arrived as small plants (bought on ebay) so don't know how old they are. I had my suspiciouns re: Catawissa becasue of the secondary bulbils, they are also a fair chunk bigger than the last tree onions I grew ten or so years ago.... If you do decide to get some "real" Catawissacan you put me down for a couple please.... I'm a sucker for wierd onions..... want to get some potato onions in next year..... and start selecting the Kelsaes..... it normally isn't too hard to get a strain that suits the local conditions and will pump out 3-4lbs average outdoors....

chrisc

[Robert_Brenchley]

The place to go is http://alanbishop.proboards.com/index.cgi? . That's where I was told mine were Catawissa, and there are people there who grow other types of topsetting onion. I'll definitely be after some when the opportunity arises.