Yellow Potato Onions?

[Tropicalgrower]

Does anyone grow yellow potato onions?I am looking for an onion that will multiply..and keep well.I wouldn't mind using green tops as well.Does anyone know if they will tolerate warmer summer temps?

[ChiliPeppa]

I am growing them for the first time now. I planted them this last November and they are growing well. I haven't pulled any to try yet. They may not get to the full bulb and curing stage until around June for me. I'm in the desert so we'll see how they do. I love having onions growing in my garden!

[Worth1]

I was waiting for more people to post and nothing.
I wish someone would chime in and say something.
Before that happens I guess I will put my two cents in.
Just about the time I thought I had onions figured out I find out there is a perennial onion family.
Shallots are subgroup of them.
I have yet to find any real good information on them.

Worth

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I was waiting for more people to post and nothing.
I wish someone would chime in and say something.
Before that happens I guess I will put my two cents in.
Just about the time I thought I had onions figured out I find out there is a perennial onion family.
Shallots are subgroup of them.
I have yet to find any real good information on them.

Worth

Worth, while I guess I should begin by saying that there are no doubt many excellent sources of fine potato onions, and you should evaluate them all, I'd suggest that if you're looking for information on potato onions, it's sure worth looking into what an innovative home gardener named Kelly Winterton has done with them and written about them in recent years.

That link PNW_D posted is one link to some of Winterton's information. I posted a couple of others over at idig (idigmygarden.com for any who don't know), in the Trading Bazaar section -- early January of this year, responding to someone who was looking for potato onions.

I think that one link I posted there is a later version or continuation of what PNW posted -- I *think* it is a link to Winterton's 2013/2014/2015 online potato onion journal, while I think the one posted here ends in 2013. And I believe that one contains information about colors and flavors of what he considers the best of his current potato onion selections. Also has info about growth patterns -- ie one follows the large bulb produces nest of small bulbs -- small bulb produces one large bulb pattern mentioned in this thread. Others produce nests of about __ bulbs each generation.

Winterton sells his excess starter onions and seeds, but with the distribution policies he encourages, I'm sure his potato onions will become more available in coming years from those just sharing their excess without charge. I plan to share a few myself if I can get my stock a little better established. So even if you don't want to buy some from Winterton it's worth reading his online journals and watching for onion-children resulting from his efforts.

He doesn't produce commercially, but, beginning with his development of Green Mountain, he's worked on potato onions for some years in his own garden. In the fall he sells very small amounts to those interested, just enough to let gardeners get a start multiply these to meet their own needs -- limiting the quantity because he has limited growing area, so thinks it better to distribute starter stock as widely as he can.

He also sells seed for them, available year round, I think, if he doesn't run out, which might be a route for Canadians to explore. I'm not sure whether he can send seed to Canada or not, but perhaps.

I believe he'd consider it fair use to quote this little bit from one of the links I put at idig, about his potato onion seeds. As you can see from this extract, and from his other written material, his objective is not to hoard his potato onion improvements to himself, but to encourage as many as possible to join his efforts to help revive potato onions of old fashioned quality and variety.

"True seeds (these seeds have been collected from my “Mountain series” of bulbs) - Each seed is like an F2 generation, with no two seeds being exactly alike. (Kind of like a snowflake!) True seeds are the first step in growing and trialing a new selection. This is perhaps the only legal way for new selections of Potato Onions to get into other countries because of the restrictions and regulations prohibiting the shipping of live bulbs. If you grow a seed to select a new variety, you could name it after yourself because it will be different from my varieties that I have selected. This is really not that difficult to do, and you might find yourself a new hobby! You can then be a part of the “resurrection” of the popularity of Potato Onions. "

There is *much* more about this in his online journals and website links. While he does sell potato onion seed he's produced, he also encourages anyone who gets blooms from starter bulbs to save and grow the seed themselves, as well -- and to distribute any good seed or starter onions as widely as they wish. As I understand it, he believes that growing a potato onion generation from seed (rather than cloning) may produce healthier stock, and also let gardeners access genetic potential that was unexpressed through the many recent generations of potato onion reproduction by cloning.

I believe he's done considerable consultation with European growers and academics interested in shallot and potato onions -- possibly with experts from other regions, as well.

My impression is that he's about concluded that the same factors that make onions/shallots have a strong flavor make them good keepers, and that, in general, the milder tasting ones don't keep as well. But I believe he's working on that and may have some varieties he's working with that have milder flavor that also keep fairly well.

Having been so enthusiastic about his potato onions, perhaps I should make clear that I have no connection of any kind with Winterton at all, except that I think highly of his published records of his potato onion development efforts and have grown encouraging offspring of a few onions I bought from him for a few years now -- though I've not yet multiplied my stock enough to use many of them -- hope to reach that point this year -- voles permitting.

I'm mainly grown his Green Mountain potato onions, and am trying to get a start with his Dakota Red's, too -- though those haven't been through the selection process that his 'mountain' series potato onions have.

But the Green Mountains do fine here, in north central Wyoming . . . and we're certainly not anything close to tropical. [g]

Puzzled PostScript: I was trying to minimize link posting by referencing the post over at idig -- but the url there that I thought was a link to Winterton's 2013/2014/2015 online potato onion journal seems to be just a list of the selections he was offering last autumn. That's still interesting as it gives descriptions of those selections, for future reference, but there *was* a link with the journal for those years -- I have a saved copy of that journal info, and saved that URL with my saved copy. Perhaps he's editing his content and changing things around. If I have time to hunt for the proper link for his journal for those years I'll post again -- but I didn't want to leave this pointing people to a journal that, as best I can tell, isn't where I thought it was. :\

---

Possibly less Puzzled Postscript: If you search with google or another search engine for:

Potato Onion Gardening Journal 2013/2014/2015

you should get to Kelly Winterton's website page that deals with potato onions.
that currently has links to the journal up to 2013 (mentioned in PNW_D's post), to the 2013/2014/2015 journals (which I mentioned above), and to the newly started 2016 journal. Plus lots of other info.

[PNW_D]

Lots of information on Potato Onions here ......

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...t?pref=2&pli=1

[ChiliPeppa]

I'm also growing I'itoi which are small like a shallots but called onion. They multiply like crazy. One seed bulb will multiply into twenty. They are good cured or as green onions. They seem to love my desert environment. I'm also growing a few of the Green Mountain potato onion as mentioned in the google doc above. Yet to eat any though.

[Worth1]

Looks like I am going to have a perpetual shallot nest.
Worth

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by Tropicalgrower

Does anyone grow yellow potato onions?I am looking for an onion that will multiply..and keep well.I wouldn't mind using green tops as well.Does anyone know if they will tolerate warmer summer temps?

They keep well, 6 months or more. I don't know how they'd do in your climate.

Here, they're planted about October 1st, have about 6" of green growth, get frozen and covered with snow in the winter, grow again in the spring and are harvested in July. A small bulb planted will generally produce one large bulb the next year, and a large bulb planted generally produces many small bulbs the next year.

[BackyardFarm]

Originally Posted by Tormato

They keep well, 6 months or more. I don't know how they'd do in your climate.

Here, they're planted about October 1st, have about 6" of green growth, get frozen and covered with snow in the winter, grow again in the spring and are harvested in July. A small bulb planted will generally produce one large bulb the next year, and a large bulb planted generally produces many small bulbs the next year.

My dad grows potato onions each year. Just plants the largest bulbs from the previous harvest each fall. Some years he just leaves them in the ground by mistake and in the summer ends up with more onions in the wrong spot. I think he plants earlier than you Tormato. More like September.

[PhilaGardener]

My Green Mountain Potato Onions are already up in my PA garden (along with my garlic). I tend to get nests of 3-4 bulbs per bulb planted. They aren't huge but do keep well - I'm still enjoying last year's crop.

I have no idea how they would do in a tropical climate, however.

[Worth1]

I found this link that has bunching onions in it.
It says to pant year round in Hawaii.
Worth
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...qf4zgaHu7pLFFg

[Kazedwards]

I have a bed of walking onions. I believe they are McCullar's White. They grow like crazy and have been green most of the winter. I can get 1-1.25" bulbs out if I catch them before they divide. They are great to have around for green onions mainly. Every few years you need to thin out the bed though. Right now they are as thick as can be.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Kazedwards

I have a bed of walking onions. I believe they are McCullar's White. They grow like crazy and have been green most of the winter. I can get 1-1.25" bulbs out if I catch them before they divide. They are great to have around for green onions mainly. Every few years you need to thin out the bed though. Right now they are as thick as can be.

Your not eating enough onions.

Worth

[ilex]

Potato onions usually do well in more tropical places. Green mountain is a mid day onion.

I plant March for a crop or September for stock increase. The difference is that I get nest of 4-5 big ones instead of 2-3 lb nest of over 20 small ones.

[Jeannine Anne]

I grew them until 2 years ago but I am not in a very hot area, they were part of my perennial veggie bed I had which I lost when I moved. I am just starting on building it back up.

XX Jeannine