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Old May 15, 2016   #59
Zeedman
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 313
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kazedwards View Post
Zeedman, are those your McCullar's White? The ones I have much more green. The bulbils will get that size but only if they are well spaced. Here are a few pics of mine.

This is them last year at the end of May.


This is of a divided nest.


And the bulbils or topsets rather. The bigger ones are from a plant that has more room. Big difference.


The coloring on the topsets are different. Also are your making topsets right now?
Your point about spacing is well taken. The onions in my permanent planting look nearly identical to yours, small bulbs with green tops, and small topsets. They obviously performed much differently when given more space, and better fertility.

My topsets have not yet appeared; but I note that you get much more sprouting of the topsets than I do. Nice patch, by the way. We seem to have both chosen locations for McCullar's directly adjacent to our home, which in my case means 1/2 day sun... that may also have contributed to the more vigorous growth, when bulbils from those plants were grown in full sun.

When I refer to the "original source" for Fleener's, I am referencing this description from an older SSE Yearbook:

"The topsets can produce an onion 3" or more when grown in rich soil, the large onions when planted will produce topsets, I am still raising these on the same farm, Fall delivery, brought to Iowa in 1853 by my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Fleener, from Indiana"

Another SSE member who grew stock from the above source described it:

"large topsets, large bulbs, excel. variety, stores well"

There were alternate listings even then from different sources, so the confusion stretches back more than 10 years.

The Fleener's stock I originally acquired was from the Iowa source listed above. Note the comment on long storage in the second source (in contrast to the poor storage I've observed with McCullar's). I had hopes that Fleener's might have turned out to be a white potato onion under a different name, since white potato onions have disappeared even from seed saving circles. Kelly Winterton's recent work with potato onions - some of which formed topsets - seems to bear out that possibility. My intent was to increase them at home, before putting them into the field for a large-scale planting... voles put a premature end to that project, and I have been looking for replacement stock since then.

"Jeannine, I have learned over the last few years that trying to figure out topsetting onions is like taking a bunch of different tomato seeds, mixing them up, throwing in crossed seeds, then trying to tell the varieties apart by just the seeds. It's a mess and as you can see from the post above the named varieties can be a mess too." (Kazedwards)

Sorry, Kaz, I'm not yet fluent with multi-quotes. I agree with that statement. I've often seen descriptions of "walking onions, a.k.a. Egyptian", or something to that effect... and reading descriptions both in the Yearbook and online, it is obvious that different walking onions are frequently offered under the same name. There is way too much confusion in walking onions, to the point where - IMO - there really is no such thing as a "reputable" source, regardless of good intentions. (I freely include myself in that disclaimer.)

Jeannine, don't become dispirited. It is entirely possible that you could have obtained the real Fleener's. Given its apparently poor winter hardiness, if any of the original stock has survived, the mild climate of the Pacific Northwest would be one of the more likely places for it to have done so... and dedicated gardeners like yourself and Annette, among others, would be its most likely custodians.

Last edited by Zeedman; May 15, 2016 at 12:20 AM.
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