I have two types of walking onions, one that I’ve had for a very long time and one I’ve had for maybe 15 years or so. I can tell them apart because the newer ones are a bit smaller and have a slight shade of blue to the leaves. For the last couple of years, some of them seem to be producing more flowers than they used too and a few of those flowers seem to have tried to make seeds. Last fall I picked out the plants that were doing it the most, of both kinds, divided them into individual bulbs and planted them in a bed with wider spacing that I generally would.
This year some of them, most in fact are growing a lot more flowers, some look almost like spherical ball of flowers that regular onions get. They aren’t gwowing many bulbils at all, and they appear to be maturing seeds! At least those little growths to the right in this picture sure look like it me.
Now before I get too excited about this, I have to mention I’ve seen these little seed capsules over the last two or three years and they have always aborted. Even in the few cases where it appeared to dry naturally, they were empty. This year though there are hundreds of them instead of a dozen or so.
In the garlic lesson, Joseph Lofthouse showed how he removed bulbils from garlic flowers, because otherwise they tend to kill the seeds before the seeds finish forming. Maybe that’s what has happened with your walking onions in the past. Do you think removing the bulbils would be a good idea?
I’m not going to mess with removing the bulbils, those making the most flowers are not making bulbils as normal anyway. These usually make a cluster of five or six rather large bulbils and maybe a flower or two or none at all and most are still doing that.
I grow all of my onions together for the most part and have been planting the resulting seeds for several years. I thought at first maybe these were the result of a cross already but I’m almost positive that isn’t the case. With both strains doing this at the same time and in about the same proportions, the chances of that are just about zero. Something environmental is going on.
That’s interesting you’re saying that MarkReed because my walking onions are also flowering this year (like not just one, quite a few of them) and this has never happened to me before…how strange a coincidence. I also wonder if something in the very unusual pattern of weather we had here (MA, wetland) is the reason why because I did nothing to them, as always: just let them be. I’m also going to try to collect seeds if I can.
I think I be seeing this phenomenon in Southeast Kentucky USA as well, although I am only on my second year with walking onions so I don’t feel confident. There are a couple with tons of flowers that do seem different from the rest in a way that might match the first photo.
Whether it’s happening here or not, I am looking forward to following this thread. Mark Reed I have been inspired by your approach to Allium in other discussions. Thank you!
Back in 2015 I was helping out at a friend’s homestead and their walking onion was producing seed. They let me collect it all! Since 2017 I’ve been germinating seedlings from those seeds every season up until last year when I ran out. They’ve germinated extremely well, unlike some onion seed whose germination rate goes down quickly.
So I now have a lot of genetically distinct walking onions and every year I have been wondering if any would flower and yet none have.
I also read about the garlic bulbils removal recently from Kelly Winterton and realized that must be why I am not getting seed, but it still doesn’t explain why the mother onion produced seed. I am wondering if its bulbils got knocked off naturally, or…?
So I took the bulbils off the top of a few of my walking onions to see what happens. I took them off one by one, but I am not sure If I did it right or not because it ended up leaving a stub at the top of the stalk. I’ll have to check on it and see if any flowers are emerging.
Does anyone know how early the bulbils need to be removed on walking onions? I did it after they swelled enough to split open the main papery covering.
Did you ask your friend if there were any conditions that year that were different from their normal conditions? Perhaps there was something that you could replicate. I wonder, perhaps there were some elements of stress that helped that happen.
But also, even if this is a rare event, that could be ok perhaps. Makes seed sharing hard, but, perhaps there is also an advantage to them only producing seed occasionally, enabling the genetics to diversify periodically but keeping the perennial benefits? (Just speculating… ) Though for seed sharing, it could be cool if there’s a none stressor that can be used so that you can share seed more easily.
I estimate about 75% of the young seed capsules on mine have aborted. The other 25% still look like they may finish seeds. That 25% is still way more than I’ve ever had before. Should know soon if I get seeds or not.
I’ve got some kind of multiplying onions that flowered. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not because that’s the first time they’ve been grown here. I started wondering yesterday if it had something to do with the way the stars line up or something. Gives me a good laugh but who knows, it’s as plausible as any other explanation anyone has.
Well shucks, it appears that nearly all of the seed capsules have aborted now. I’m sure those little white things in that one were seeds. Apparently, they can go ahead and dry up even at that stage. I inspected them all closely this morning and looks like about a dozen or so, out of hundreds, that may still have a chance. I wonder if for some reason they don’t know how to make a seed coat so when the capsule dries up so do they.
I picked mine apart. Thé ones with flowers as well as the ones with bulbils only.
The early flowers on top felt emptier than the ones later further down.
I’ve got two types of walking onions. Only one is flowering. I’ll come across some other flowering types in future. Then i’ll look some more into getting seeds.
For now i’ve separated them, big sures, middle chancers and small scribbly maybe’s.
I’ve planted some four small maybe’s a month earlier, only one survived, the rest rotted. I’d like it if i could get the small ones going too . i’ll let them get used to their indoor seperate status for like a week, see if they get nice and hard and then plant them out in a balcony tray watering them over summer. But only if
I generally just leave the bulbils alone until a little later in the season other than eating some of them. In my garden and climate, they are tolerant and resilient of about anything. For a long time in the past, I just let them do their own thing completely but in recent years I’ve been dividing the larger bulbs and the larger bulbils and planting them in proper beds, in late summer or fall, with other onions hoping for flowers and seeds the next year.
I was very hopeful of seeds this year and although I got lots more flowers than ever, I don’t think I will get any seeds. Still a possibility though that they pollinated some of the other onions.
I have two kinds for sure, maybe three. I had some for a long time then someone gave me some and then someone else gave me some more. I didn’t know for sure that I had two phenotypes until I started planting them more orderly. One kind is bigger and greener, the other is a little bit shorter and has a bluish tint. The bluish one has a bit more mellow flavor and is our favorite. If the third kind is different, I can’t tell. The bigger green ones are the ones I had originally and are very hot flavored.
But, nope, still no seeds. Well, like I said there are definitely seeds in the fresh green pods, but they don’t mature, just dry up.
I think that mine have likewise failed to produce viable seed. I had two plants with mature flower heads, one has broken off and disappeared on me. I took this photo of the other one today.
Fingers crossed I get a few seeds. Looks like out of several hundred flowers there are a handful, less than a dozen individual capsules or pods or whatever they are called that look like they may still have a chance.
They bloomed enough earlier than my other onions that any crossing was minimal. Maybe though, especially if the problem is defective pollen on the walking onions, those few managed to get pollinated by something else. Only time will tell.
