2022-10-06T07:00:00Z
Does anyone here grow their alliums, i.e., leeks, garlic, Egyptian walking onions, scallions, etc., together in the same bed? Is there any reason not to do this? Thanks.
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William S
I do I call it my Allium bed. Nothing has crossed yet and it’s been a few years.
Mark R
I grow my garlic all together in one bed, well actually I let it go wild, so it grows all over the place including outside the garden in the weedy areas. There might be a little bit that came from true seeds that I acquired a few years back but mostly it is collected up from several wild patches I found here and there around SE Ind and N Kentucky. I don’t harvest and re-plant much of it in the traditional way, I just let it do its thing and harvest some little bulbs or leaves whenever we want it.
I grow all of my onions together and harvest and use then in the same way. I let them seed however they want and plant the seeds in late summer. Any that survive the winter and flower the next year get to multiply. Many also multiply in the ground or from topsets. I also plant grocery store bulbs in fall and see if they sprout and grow, many do. I’m careful of those when they bloom to make sure the flowers look normal, so as not to introduce CMS. In my climate many types, including the grocery store ones will divide and start growing again after seeding. Any that don’t just die out.
I’m trying with pretty good success to turn them into a self-sustaining, year-round crop where you just go out and get some when you want. Very hot summer when the tops have often died and very cold, especially with snow are times when onions are hard to come by here, but I do try to harvest and store enough to get through those times.
I also grow several wild onions I’ve found here and there, in hopes they might cross into the patch, but I don’t think that has happened. Only a couple of them even bloom and as far as I know they might be different species.
One of those wild ones, Allium canadense, is the most delicious allium flavor I’ve ever tasted. It reproduces both from seed and topsets. Too bad the little bulbs are rarely much bigger than a pea.
I’m also careful as mentioned before not to harvest all of the non-seeding walking onion types. Actually, I don’t harvest a lot of them anyway, as all of them I have are terribly hot flavored and we don’t like them very much. I guess I just keep them around for the nostalgia.
There is a nasty bug, I think called a leak moth whose larva ruin the bulbs. I guess it can attack about any allium but the only time I’ve ever seen it was in leeks, so, I don’t grow leeks. The woman here grows elephant garlic which I think is the same species as leeks, but I’ve never seen the worms there. I don’t know what’s up with that.
Debbie A
Thanks, Mark, for sharing your experience. I’m going to start planting grocery store alliums and train myself to look at the flowers.
I’ve got garlic volunteering in my garden, too, sometimes in big clumps that are too crowded to make decent sized heads. This year I made green garlic powder using the whole young plants in the spring. It’s a milder version of regular garlic powder but does add a delicious subtle flavor to food.
You got me curious about the wild onion, but apparently that one is not found in Utah. 
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I think it would be awesome if we could get Bioregionally localized Allium landraces going. (And other species that are hard to grow from seed or get seed. I’m thinking potatoes and sweet potatoes.) A bunch of people could grow lots of different varieties, select for plants that grow well, bulbs (and tubers) that store well, and taste good. Then send a few to someone who can grow them out for seed, trained to look for CMS, who would then send seed back to collaborators. They could charge a fee, or maybe just shipping.
I have been trying to get started with wild onions, bunching onions, and garlic (as well as potatoes), but the frequency and timing of moves has hit these projects very hard. I haven’t even started with storage onions, even though they are one of my family’s staples. Not enough space until now for them. Though keeping a significant population size is practically impossible for any home gardener who also wants to eat onions.
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I agree bioregional would be ideal. But we’re quite few people so far.
I am just starting to safe seeds from onions i started from seed in spring 22. They’re not even a grex. I ate the smaller ones. Saved thé bigger ones on a shelf. But they started sprouting early, getting all skinny and stuff so i needed to put their roots down. They survived very cold nights and seem to grown fine.
My leeks i’ve got tons of seeds from and have started a grex spring 22. I expect some seeds of those coming season. Hoping for crosses!
Garlics i grow everywhere. But they never go to seed!
I wouldn’t know where to get garlic which makes viable seeds. I’d totally be growing it for landraces!
Potatos i’ve ordered seeds from, i’ve got thèm from Vreeken in Holland. They sell grexes of resistant varieties.
I suck at growing sweet potatoes, so no action there. But same thing as for garlic: i’d love to try a grex if thé seeds would be around.
@MarkReed I had a nasty leek moth attack this fall; the plants were all affected. I decided to continue and keep the best looking ones for seed anyway. Not that there was a big difference- they were all pretty brown- but some took it slightly better than others. I hope I can eventually end up with leeks that are somewhat resistant to the moths. Now I’m hoping to have another attack next fall so I have more selection opportunities.
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I had never seen a leek moth before and reading about them I found they can also infest other alliums. I haven’t seen that happen though so something about leeks is apparently most attractive to them, so I just dropped leeks from my garden.
They had to come from somewhere, so I guess they are in the neighborhood but have never bothered anything else, that I’ve noticed. My garlic came from half a dozen wild patches that I think have been in the area for a very long time so maybe it already has some resistance. All of my onions except some of the walking types produce seed, so I hope if the moths someday decide to attack them, they will be able to adapt.
The woman here grows elephant garlic which I’m told is the same species as leeks, but I haven’t seen the moths in them either. No clue what’s up with that.
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I have found wild leaks. They have more bulbils then the domestcated ones i grow. They have a garlic scent to them. They just grow quite abundantly in fields surrounded by grass and surviving scorching summers. Traits i do appreciate a lot.
I believe they will flower this summer which could be great if they pollinate my leaks grex.
Some wild garlic would be great to find next! I believe they carry viable seeds.
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That’s a valuable genetic source. Could those bulbils be developed into elephant garlic?
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Hi Marvin. Maybe. No idea where it is going yet!
I wish we had ramps out here they are pretty cool. From what I’ve read they take a while to get to seed. As for compatibility with other allium species, idk. I assume they are closest to leeks because of their being called wild leeks, but if I had them, I would try crossing them to as many species as I could get to flower at the same time.
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Oh I just read about those, hoping to find me some someplace in nature so I can start ‘encouraging’ it to grow wild in my garden!
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Seeds are fairly common but not especially numerous and I’m hoarding them on the off chance I might have some crosses. Got lots of little bulbils though. I will be sending a package to the swap at end of season, remind me later in the fall to include some.
I see you’re in a climate quite similar to mine so no worries on when to plant. Apparently, that can be done any time. I found some little bulbils this spring that had laid around all winter in a paper sack and they grew just fine. Just bloomed a little later than the fall planted ones.
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This year the wild onions high up in the mountains have bloomed more than I can remember. I gathered some early blossoms to eat. They were the best ever. Today I went up and harvested a bag of dried blossoms. They are loaded with seed.
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Check out this Wikipedia Page and it Will Tell you which Alliums will Likely Cross!
In a nutshell, Alliums Cross within their own Subgenus. Not every Allium will Cross with any Allium. They mostly Cross within their Subgenus or Section. Rule of thumb, All true Allium Species are Edible Raw or cooked, but some more edible than others. They also all amit a Onion/Garlic like smell. If they can cross with each other, that’s also a good sign that everything it crossed with is also edible.
To Answer your Questions
Ramps/Wild Leek (Allium tricocum) belong to the Subgenus Anguinum
That means the Following Species are Corssable…
- Other Ecotypes of Ramps/Wild Leek (Allium tricocum)
- Siberian Onion (Allium ochotense)
- Another Species of Siberian Onion (Allium microdictyon)
- Victory Onion/Alpine Leedk (Allium victorialis)
- Chinese Ornamental Onion (Allium ovalifolium)
Everything else like Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum) are not Crossable with Ramps because it belongs to a different Allium subgenus. Unless you got a lab and can engineer a Bridge for Ramps to Cross with Leeks, it’s not possible (But don’t let me stop you from trying).
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Super cool!!
The seeds of this wild leek are viable and the bulbils grow nicely. The seedlings show on the left side.
Whole tray.
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That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing
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This is the first time we are collecting seeds for different allium plants. Please send your seeds in now.
Seed Steward:
Holly T. Hansen (hollythansen58@gmail.com)
Mailing Address:
Going to Seed Alliums
C/O Holly Hansen
1950 N. 6900 E.
Croydon, UT 84018
Seeds accepted:
True seeds (no bulbs or bulbils please) of the following:
Chives
Elephant Garlic
Garlic
Garlic Chives
Leeks
Bunching Onions (Egyptian walking, Welsh, potato & shallot, etc)
Bulbing Onions (Red, white, yellow and must be designated long day or short day if known)
Wild Onions (Spring onion or Rampson/Ramps, Onion grass, Tree onion, Canada onion, etc)
Instructions:
Follow dry process and seed drying guidelines. Be sure to cut the seed heads (aka umbels) from the plants and allow to completely dry. Label the seeds with year and general type of allium. If you have several types of alliums that could cross, please note on the seed envelope the possibility that they could have crossed with another type. For example, wild onions may have crossed with potato onion. Send in as much seed as you can, they are very small and the packets we send out will be limited.
Seeds per packet for distribution: 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon
Proposed mixes:
Elephant Garlic
Garlic
Garlic Chives
Leeks
Bunching Onions (Egyptian walking, Welsh, potato & shallot, etc)
Bulbing Onions (Red, white, yellow and must be designated long day or short day if known)
Wild Onions
I look forward to receiving your seeds and preparing them for distribution.
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Very helpful, thank you.
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