Small onions

[JerryL]

This year I had a mixed bag when it came to my onions. Most grew just fine and came out large and tasty. However about two dozen or so were on the small side. An inch to two inches in diameter. They were all planted the same distance apart and in the same soil so I have no idea why they were so small. I wound up pickling the small ones and giving them to a friend. He said they were great.

So my question is – does any one know a variety of small when mature onion? Or is there some trick I can use to have a standard onion, say Candy, mature at a small size?

[shelleybean]

Potato/Multiplier onions are pretty small, compared to a regular onion you'd see in the grocery store. These are usually planted in the fall and pulled in June or July. Mine arrived yesterday and I'll plant in the next couple of weeks. You can read about them at www.southernexposure.com and click on the link on their home page. There are shallots there too, which are similar. Most of these store very well.

From Italy, there are also cipollini onions, which are kind of flattened and make great pickling onions. There are also red ones called bottle onions. I think you can see these at www.milkranch.com in the onion section. These Italian onions are sweet and I don't think they store very well but they are small. I think these are usually sold as seed but hopefully someone will speak up if I'm wrong about that.

Have fun!

[JerryL]

Michele,

Thanks for the tips. I’ll look into finding some Multiplier onions.