Potato onion cultivation
Potato onions were
one of our experimental vegetables this year, and I'd be
hard-pressed to call them a success. The total production from
one garden bed was 60 bulbs, but most were too small to bother skinning
for
supper. I figure that all together they'd add up to enough onion
flesh to feed us for about two weeks.
On the other hand,
potato onions do have a
lot of potential. These storage onions can be grown from
multiplied bulbs, a bit like Egyptian
onions, with no need
to buy seed or sets
every year. If we tweak our growing technique a bit, I
think we could turn potato onions into a dependable part of our annual
harvest.
We began our experiment
with an eight ounce starter package of Loretta
Yellow Multiplier
Onions from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The company told us
that we could choose to plant bulbs in the fall for a larger yield, but
also a higher likelihood of losing onions to freezing, or could wait
and plant in the
spring. We opted to toss them all in the ground at the beginning
of November.
I'd
like to say that we lost a third of the bulbs to winter cold, but
instead I have to admit to mismanagement. After planting, I
mulched the bed heavily with autumn leaves since I knew from experience
that garlic will push up through a heavy mulch with
no problem. Potato onions are made of weaker stuff, though,
and the bulbs under the thickest mulch languished and died.
Spring
came, and our remaining onions were doing well. As
the original bulb divided into multiple bulbs, the plant pushed the
dirt aside and I was able to watch the onions grow. I was pleased
to see each individual plant turn into six to ten smaller plants, and
then the bulbs began to swell.
I thought we were in for
a bumper crop, but then over half of the
potato onions threw up flower stalks. An exhaustive search of the
internet turns up little data about potato onion flowers, except that
they're rare and channel energy away from the bulbs. A few
anecdotes suggest
that potato onions are more likely to bloom when fall planted, so next
year I'll stick to spring planting. I was disappointed but not
surprised to find that the
blooming plants produced only small bulbs.
The
few non-blooming onions, though, sparked my interest. Each plant
produced one to two big bulbs about two thirds the size of a
storebought onion, along with several small bulbs for replanting.
I plan to eat the big bulbs and put all of the small ones in the ground
early next spring. If we can tweak our planting
method to prevent blooming, I foresee doing away with fiddly seed
onions and expensive and ephemeral onion sets and instead planting
potato onions every year from our own offset bulbs.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I'm new to your site... new to growing what you eat.. but I'm really enjoying your site and wanted to let you know...
Annie
Actual seeds (as opposed to small onions or "sets") for Potato Onions seem to be very hard to come by. If you've not yet snapped all your flowers off, perhaps you could let one or more run to seed for selling/swapping (or even giving away
I'm in Europe and there seems to be no source of potato onions over here. With the limitations of shipping plant material outside of it's country of source, there's little chance of obtaining a few sets for experimentation, but there doesn't seem to be such limitation on seed material, so if you do end up with some seed, I'd be very keen to mail you a few $$$, or arrange a PayPal payment, to aquire a small quantity.
I planted my Potatoe Onions the 20th of this Aug and they are already 12 inches tall and I also have a second bed of them, just planted them. I also have two beds prep for some Egyptian Onions. Now those should be interesting. I live in Graham Washington.
I dug down about 8 inches and mixed in peat, some cow stuff and soil sweetner.
I love your site.
Ed --- I'm wondering if it wouldn't have been smart to plant potato onions early like that here too. The books say to wait and plant them with the garlic (which I just did last week), but several had rotted in the bag.
Smart to throw in Egyptian onions since they're nearly impossible to ruin.
This might be a dup.
I never thought of planting Garlic with them, that is a good idea. It has been a long time since I have planted Garlic. Where I live in Graham Washington I have 4 acres of woods and along with the woods we have deer. I have tried to grow a garden a couple of times, but it is to much work in trying to keep them out. We have 5 does and there is always one of them that has twins.
On the Egyption Onions I plan on staking a couple of them. From what I have read they can grow up to well over 2 feet tall. They are a most interesting growing plant. I was even thinking about potting one to grow in the house.
Where do you plant the Garlic in relation to your Onions?
Thanks for your reply.
Ed
Ed --- We don't mix the garlic and potato onions together, just plant them at the same time. Garlic is one of my favorite crops --- I highly recommend it for easiness (and winter beauty), but the deer will eat it.
We try to keep plants in the same family out of a given location for three years. So, if I planted garlic in a bed this year, I'd wait until 2015 before planting onions or garlic there again. In practice, planting sweet potatoes or a second or third planting of bush beans, sweet corn, cucumbers, or summer squash after garlic works well since I pull the garlic in early summer.
Right now I am preping couple of areas for my Potato and Egyption Onions. The Potato Onions I planted last summer atre already drying up. Right now from what I have seen both of my Potato and Egyption are putting on top sets. Of all the Potato Onion sites I have yet to see with top sets though I have read where some did have top sets.
If any one would like some photos of them send me an email. be188e@yahoo.com