Garlic and multiplier onions

[macmex]

This morning (day before we plan to meet, July 12, 2014) I've been digging garlic and hope to get to some of my multiplier onions. This is the time of year for harvesting these crops, at least in our neck of the woods. As I work my way through some beds, which have been engulfed by weeds, I am reminded that I really should label everything at the time of planting! Seemingly beds move from where I planted them! I'm having to figure out what is what based on my notes and descriptions of varieties.

I do plan to bring some samples for “show and tell,” and hope to give away some top set seeds of some of the garlic. Last year I harvested a couple seed balls, thinking they were from multiplier onions. I planted some in a flat and transplanted them into the garden in late winter. Lo and behold! They grew into garlic (lots of it)! Though this may take an extra year to arrive at really good sized cloves, it should be a fast way to get to a whole lot of garlic in just a couple of years.


I will have to back up, when I have more time, and deal with this topic in more depth. However, I would like to mention that both garlic and multiplier onions (Egyptian multiplier, shallots, potato onions, etc.) tend to be very productive and exceedingly useful in the kitchen. They are hardy, and, if you have to purchase them very much, in the store, they can be expensive. They don't take up much space in the garden. So... why not grow them!?

[macmex]

Here is a link to an interesting article on garlic seed production as opposed to bulblet production. I love to read of the history and development of food crops!

www.garlicfarm.ca/article-garlic-seeds.htm

[philagardener]

There have been some interesting developments with potato (multiplying) onions, which only rarely seem to make fertile blossoms (similar to Garlic in this regard).  It would appear that repeated vegetative propagation of many varieties in the onion family has led to a loss in fertility that makes it difficult to get true seed; perhaps selection for vegetative offsets (bulbils) is the cause.  Nonetheless, in rare cases where flowers do set seed, the genetic diversity unlocked in the F1 generation can provide a fertile ground for the selection of new varieties.

A Utah gardener by the name of Kelly Winterton was able to collect seed from some traditional varieties of potato onions and found a wealth of diversity among the offspring. His best selection so far is named "Green Mountain" for a range near his home.

sites.google.com/site/kellysgarden/potato-onions

[macmex]

At some point I had read that. But thanks for the reminder! Yes, there is a lot of potential in obtaining seed from garlic and multiplier onions. "So much time, so little to do....Stop! Reverse that! So much to do so little time!" (Willie Wonka).   

George

[john]

The potato onions look very interesting to me as they produce a nice sized onion. I have some top set type onions that were given to me many years ago, but they just produce small onions. The top set onions would be much more useful to our family if they had some size.

[macmex]

They especially shine this time of year, as they make great green onions and are abundant when there aren't that many other crops ready to go. I also use garlic shoots in stir fries and soups. They're very good.

[heavyhitterokra]

Our multiplier onions are very special to us. A lady at Church gave us our first start when we moved here back in 2004; she has since then passed away, but the "Walking Onions" as she called them have lived on in her name for the past 17 years. We harvest them in the dead of winter, or anytime we need green onion to add to bean dip, egg omelets, or anywhere green onions are needed. They are crazy reliable and carefree plants that make a house feel like a home. 

[theozarkan]

There is some kind of wild or escaped onion thing that is growing here on our place. I've never planted anything in that area but there is an old house place up the hill a little and they may have come from there a long time ago. I've never tried to eat them because I wasn't sure what they were. The patch seems to get a little bigger every year. These are growing in a low area that stays on the wet side unless it really dry.

I'll try to get a picture in a day or two. I got a tooth yanked this morning then went to town for feed. I was feeling okay until I unloaded that ton of feed and got my heart rate up a little and then I could feel it pulsing.

[macmex]

I've heard of garlic, shallots and Egyptian multiplier type onions, all surviving for decades in the undergrowth where a house once stood. Oftentimes they'll appear small and weedy when one finds them, but if grown in a regular garden they size up to their original size.

The walking onions are so hardy that I've had them start to take over part of the garden. I went in and weeded a bunch out, in late June, tossing them on top of the mulch. They sat there, roasting in our 100 F Plus summer temps, in full sun, for over a month, only to start growing again, through the mulch, once the rains returned!

Here's a memory: When I was about 13 years old my mother took my other two siblings and went somewhere for a week. I cannot recall where they went. During that week my father and I had the adventure of "batching it." Of course, he worked and was away most of the day, but we coordinated making supper. Mom had socked away lots of stuff in the freezer and I could catch fish. It was mid summer, so we had lots of stuff in the garden.

I think, perhaps 4 out of 6 evenings we ended up making what we called "pepper steak." I'd pick some hot peppers (and some sweet) along with some Egyptian onions and we'd cut them into a pan with chunks of steak, to sauté. It was glorious, especially for a 13 year old growing boy. If Dad had any problems with the repetition, he never said anything. He expressed gratefulness for my part in gathering the ingredients. As I recall, we cut both the root and tender part of the stems into the dish.
 

[chrysanthemum]

We just had pepper steak for dinner tonight because I needed a meal I could put together quickly. I confess to using frozen fajita vegetables from the store, but one pepper flower opened today. Funny thing was I thought it was a purple jalapeno plant, but it doesn’t look like it. I don’t think I mixed the plants up, but the flower is white, not purple. I also noticed my first onion softening at the neck today.