Quote:
Originally Posted by Tropicalgrower
I like pearl onions.I do.I read that most pearl onions are simple Allium Cena densely planted,but are there other options?
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There is at least one other option that I know of - A. sphaerocephalum, a.k.a Pearlzweibel or Pearl Onion. The plant looks like a miniature version of elephant garlic, and forms a solid bulb about 1" wide, and a cluster of tiny white bulblets about 1/4" wide at the base. Those pearl-like bulblets, if planted, will again produce a single solid bulb & a cluster of bulblets.
The 1" bulbs look like they would be good pickled, but I have never grown enough to try. They are not as winter hardy as some of my other onions, and just when my stock begins to increase, a hard winter kills most of them.
Most of those I planted last Fall survived & are healthy, so I may have enough bulblets to attempt a large(r) planting this Fall.
I was able to obtain several other multiplying Alliums from SSE this year; some which form topsets, and some which appear to form bulbs. One of those has small bulbs similar in size to Pearlweibel... I'll know more about it in late Summer, when it goes dormant & I dig it up to divide it.