If you go to the allium forum at Seed Savers Exchange you will find a lot of info.

Here is a link that might be useful: Allium forum at SSE

I have three types(Franz, Four Season, Stevenson) of multiplier/bunching onions going now for three years. I grew them from seed and planted them under lights 6 weeks before transplant. They seem to grow fine without much trouble. Mine are thicker in general then green onions you might find at the grocery store and a bit more flavor, but that's fine with me.

Dean

dean, do you see appreciable differences between the varieties? I, too, want to give these a try and have been amazed at the different varieties available.

Over the years I've grown a number of shallots and potato onions, mostly when we lived in Indiana. They all did great for us.

When we lived in Hidalgo, Mexico; I grew Atlas, a shallot, from seed. It did great there, which was wonderful, as other shallots/multipliers I tried, there, didn't bulb up.

Here in Oklahoma some shallots I've tried didn't bulb up well, though they may have simply succumbed to extreme heat, which sometimes starts early in the season. I did purchase some potato onions from KY and they bulb up great. But they tend to cook in the ground unless I harvest them and store them, till fall, in the fridge.

I'm not sure about the difference between a multiplier and a shallot, though I suspect it's kind of like the difference between a squash and a pumpkin. My theory is that "shallot" refers to a size and possible shape of a multiplier onion; and that "multiplier" is a much broader term, simply referring to the manner in which they divide under ground. Those which have bulbed for me have been great. They are much less finicky about planting time and conditions than are onions grown from seed. The potato onions we grew in Indiana would keep in storage, almost all winter. The ones I've grown here don't seem to be as good for storage. Though the difference might be in conditions. Shallots I've grown have been great keepers. Their only disadvantage is that they are more laborious to prepare, due to their size.

George
Tahlequah, OK

You're right about their relationship. According to the Territorial Seed catalog, both shallots and multiplier onions are Allium cepa, Aggregatum group. And according to Wikipedia. the differnece between the two are the size of the bulb and number of offshoots they produce.

We have gardened in S.C. my whole life.
My father was not into small fruit or onions & garlic.
I would like to know what a potato onion is?

A potato onion is a kind of multiplier onion, mostly found in the Appalachians. My wife's grandparents raised them in southern Illinios and I grew them in northern Indiana. They are kind of like shallots, but larger. They are fairly round.

They are not easy to find, due to the fact that they are only multiplied by division, not seed. But back in the day, potato onions were gifted to Appalachian newlyweds, as a start for their new home. I hear that Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has them.

Here's a picture of some potato onions.
{{gwi:134312}}

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Potato Onions

Those are some beautiful onions, George. I've tried the large multiplier onions here, but they are not hardy enough to survive my winters when Fall planted. Shallots are hardier, I grow two that have virtually no winter kill... but the bulbs are much smaller.

Been meaning to try the larger onions again Spring planted, if I can store the bulbs successfully over Winter. I'm experimenting with my shallots this year, to see what if any difference there is between Fall & Spring plantings.

There are really 3 classes of multiplying onions: the ground-bulbing multipliers (A. cepa); top setting walking onions (also A. cepa); and bunching onions (A. fistulosum). The bulbing onions have been pretty much covered already.

Walking onions don't usually form much of a bulb, and are principally used as scallions. They multiply both from the bulb clusters which form at the top of the "flower" stalk, and by dividing from the base. They are exceptionally hardy and long-lived... a clump of them might outlast the structures nearby! I just posted notes about their culture on another thread in this forum.

Bunching onions are a different species. The majority of modern cultivars are from Asia, where they are much more popular than here. They can form exceptionally large stalks the first year, some almost rivaling leeks in size. The varieties mentioned by above Dean are bunching onions; in my trial, those 3 were the hardiest & multiplied the most rapidly. There is considerable variation in size, winter hardiness, and the degree to which they multiply; those with larger stalks tend, unfortunately, to be the least winter hardy. The clumping varieties closely resemble walking onions in appearance, but form clusters of flowers on their stalks instead of bulbs.

My preference for flavor of scallions is the walking onions, such as "Catawissa". To my taste, they are milder than the bunching onions.

Potato onions do very well here in my locale if grown correctly. Plant in the fall (Thanksgiving is the traditional time), provide good soil fertility, and "never let a July rain hit your potato onions" (as the rule goes). The onions should be harvested before the heat of summer sets in.

If cured correctly they store very well, no problem there. My wife used to braid and hang them in the basement.

Potato onions are my favorite for large luscious EARLY (the earliest) green onions. IMO, it's worth it to grow them for that reason alone.

For eating raw the mature cured bulbs are a bit strong for most modern palates, but good for cooking.

Just to add, these onions really do 'multiply', easily a fivefold return with an average planting.

I'm having a witch of a time finding a source to buy starters from. Southern Exposure is sold out...only one place in Canada has them and won't ship to US.

Any other sources anyone knows about?

Or if anyone has a couple extras to share? I have red and white walking onions, reg and garlic chives, and leeks that I can share/exchange, not much else as far as alliums, although I have lots of peppers seeds. Please contact me at patrioticcrafts@aol.com if possible for trade.

Thanks Laura

Good and accurate info, Zeedman. I'm in the Madison area, and have for the past several years grown a yellow potato onion from Territorial, if I recall. Always fall planted and usually a good producer. Someone told me to get the biggest onions not to plant them deep like garlic, but just deep enough that the tip is buried, then give a good 8" layer of shredded leaves to mulch. Works like a charm, onions are golfball size or larger.

I have also been in contact with Kelly Winterton and his development of new Potato Onion varieties from seed. Google him if you're not sure who he is, fascinating stuff. Got some of his Green Mountain Multiplier, as well as some unnamed culls from his experiments and have them in the ground. In z5 he actually recommends fall planting for the best production.

I also have the Egyptian Walking Onion, probably the Catawissa var., growing as a novelty, I have a better bunching type. However, this fall when dividing the WO, they had produced a nice size storage structure underground, about the size of a good shallot, which I cleaned and am curing now for use this winter. A very hot flavor when green, but curing them seems to mellow them.

My bunching onion came from seed from a friend, variety long gone, but it is the best scallion / green onion / bunching onion that I have tried. Also a pretty vigorous seed producer. It is the last thing green in the fall, and the first thing green in the spring, and if I dig around under the snow, I can usually find a few to pull on a mild January day.

During the appropriate season, I am usually able to offer these to GW members, plus there are many people on this forum growing lots of different varieties and offering them as well. Keep checking back. Lorabell, contact me in July and we'll see if we can hook you up!

Steve

Steve, how are your Green Mountain Multiplier onions doing? They're pretty hard to find, these days, it seems. Have they been producing seeds? If so, have you been saving them?

My Green Mountain multipliers get spring planted. The size is real nice, but they don't multiply all that well. My yellow multipliers are smaller but make a whole lot more divisions. They are also hardy enough to do well fall planted. They came from Jungs fall catalog, not available from them in the spring.

You might be able to still order plants from heirloomonions.com. They have as good of a listing as I have seen anywhere, but they don't always have stock available.

Just a quick note: the yellow multipliers generally keep the best of all the “aggregatum” group. I braid mine once almost cured and hang the braids in the kitchen, storing them right there at room temperature. They have been known to be overlooked one year and then still grow when planted the next year. The strain I have works planted spring or fall. Those we had when I was a yonker, were always spring planted. There is more than one strain out there.

Like is mentioned above. Plant them shallow for best return, actually same for regular onion sets. I plant my garlics shallow too, and they always dig themselves down in anyway.

BTW topsetting, walking, or Egyptian onions, are not Allium cepa, they are a set of naturally occurring interspecific hybrids generally assigned to Allium x proliferum. The true onions, Allium cepa of what ever type, generally do not set bulbils, but if they scape out at all tend to set true seed.

I would love to try these. Where can they be found?

Green Mountain Multiplier onions usually run out pretty quickly, from what I've seen. There might still be some for sale. You can get some other, smaller multiplier onions (including Egyptian walking onions) from Southern Exposure (among probably other places). As for me, since I'm in Idaho, I'd have to get seeds for any onions I plant, if they're from out of state (instead of bulbs), due to the Idaho laws (fortunately, they do have Green Mountain Multiplier onion seeds—although I haven't checked to see if they're in stock anywhere, lately).

However, it's really good to realize that there are bunching onions that behave similarly (e.g. Crimson Forest bunching onions). They're really easy to grow, including from seed (and they're easy to find), and they multiply every year. They're not as big, of course (but Crimson Forest still bulbs, at least—however, I grow it for the greens, mostly, since they're so tall and tasty). They seem to multiply more with age, and perhaps more when you divide them more (mine multiplied at the end of this last season, and then I divided them and they multiplied again right afterward).

Also, you can get shallots from all over the place. They multiply, too, but they're also not as big as Green Mountain Multiplier onions, and probably not as big as other potato onions besides Green Mountain, either.

Some people say that regular onions sometimes turn into potato onions when growing them out longer.

Thanks!

I have walking onions.

I am going to try some different potato onions.

Walking onions aren't considered potato onions. Potato onions are supposed to multiply at the bulb, instead of from bulbils/bulblets. They're all perennial onions, though (although even that, some people will question; I'm guessing the reason is because they might think the initial bulb has to continue to be present for a certain number of years, regardless of whether it produces more, and maybe, but I don't know, the initial bulb might not last too many years; I personally don't think that should be a requirement for it to be considered perennial, as long as live tissue originating from the plant still exists without having to plant another true seed).

How do you all amend your soil for perennial onions after they've been growing there for a while and used up the nutrients? The leaves on my bunching onions are starting to bend over, due to lack of something. I'm guessing potassium or calcium, but I'm not sure.

I know, I have had potato onion.

But there are different kind & i want to try more than one.

onions like all vegetable need a balanced soil full organic matter.

Calcium is a good start in sandy soil, but not always good in clay soil.

Everyone should have a soil test.

I use coffee chaff,animal manure, leaves, grass clippings to build up my beds.

Walking onions are not as demanding of soil fertility as bulbing onions. I have had a patch of Catawissa walking onions in the same place for 20 years, and all I have added is shredded leaves or a little compost over the bed... and that not every year. The plants are still healthy. I harvest scallions by carefully cutting out one bulb & stem per cluster, the remaining stems will divide to replace it.

If divided & transplanted though (during dormancy), the plants will divide from the base more rapidly, and produce larger bulbs. Nowhere near the size of normal onions (only 1-2" across) and they have poor storage life... but the flavor is very potent.

The bulbils on Catawissa were very large last year, many over 1" wide. Normally those bulbils survive in a box on my unheated patio until Spring, but the warm weather we are currently experiencing might trick them into sprouting... I'll have to check on them. There are bulbils from 4-5 other walking onion varieties that I grow with them, it will be interesting to compare their winter hardiness.

I had a Crimson Forest bulb that was about 1.5" in diameter. I think it's still out there. I should get a picture if it is (it might have split into multiple bulbs). The others were all smaller than that. I have them growing in a raised bed next to some sorrel plants, in clay-type soil. They've been there for at least two years (I direct-seeded the initial ones there) without much if any fertilizer the whole time. But, I think they need it, at last.

It's still there! And it is has two stalks. The pine needles just fell there (I didn't add them on purpose):

Sorry, I'm not trying to one-up you there or anything. I just wasn't familiar with the sizes for walking onions. So, I got excited about the size of my onion and let you know about it.

Anyway, I grow them mostly for the greens. I like green onions more than regular onions, if they're both fresh, usually. Cooked, I likely prefer bulbs. The greens make great raw salsa.

Interesting. When I looked up Crimson Forest, I found very different photos & descriptions from different vendors... some bulbing, some not, some identifying it as A. fistulosum, some as A. cepa. Baker Creek shows prominent bulbs, while Reimer shows the classic stalk-only bunching onion. If it is truly A. fistulosum, then what you have, Shule, is very unusual. I'm left wondering if those vendors are just using photos drawn out of a hat, or if they are really selling different onions under the same name. Misrepresentation is, unfortunately, fairly common in the seed industry.

In my experience, bunching onions do not form bulbs as large as those in your photo. About 10 years ago, I conducted a trial of 8 different bunching onions (both heirloom & commercial) and there was no sign of bulb formation on any of them. I suspect that your version of Crimson Forest is either A. cepa, or a fistulosum/cepa hybrid.

Every account I see of Crimson Forest is of a type that eventually forms small bulbs, but is often harvested before bulbs form as a bunching onion. As with all Allium cepa, where they are winter hardy they are perennial NOT biennial, although they are often grown as biennials for seed or as annuals for the first year bulb or stem. As perennials once they divide you get clumps of stems or nests of bulbs with many of them becoming actual multipliers, some longer lived than others, but most with smaller bulbs than they produce the first year from seed, if they bulb at all. The onion bulb is actually only the juvenile form, which in Allium cepa is an exaggerated form and bred to be that.

I wish Photobucket hadn't changed their policy and dumped free users. I can't edit my 2012 comment, in order to update the picture either.

Here's the picture which I can't fix in the post above.

In this post I'll include a picture I took of potato onions in 2017. This is the only one, out of about a pound of potato onions, which I had planted, which produced well. But it was also the only one which was planted correctly, according to the comments above, made by more knowledgeable onion growers.

I've replanted all of these onions in December and mulched them. So, I hope to get some real multiplication in the coming year. In our climate it seems extra important to harvest them before July. Otherwise they rot in the ground. Also, I believe they store better, until planting, on my kitchen counter, than in the refrigerator. The fridge is too cold and provokes sprouting.

These were purchased from Southern Exposure and the instructions they send with them have been very helpful.

My seed source for my Crimson Forest bunching onions was Reimer Seeds (however, I do shop at Baker Creek quite a bit). I'm guessing their picture is of younger ones, or maybe they were grown in a southern area. It's possible that they bulb more in northern areas.

FYI, Crimson Forest onions aren't red inside (just the skin). They're white inside.

What are the most cold hardy long day to intermidate day Allium cepa bulbing large storage onions out there? I want to try growing them as perennials, in light of OldDutch's reply. The regular onions I've tried before didn't sprout via direct-seeding like my bunching onions did, but I did get those from a different vendor, although it seems like a good vendor (dollarseed.com); I'm guessing they would have sprouted better in seed-starting mix than clay soil. (They were Southport Red/White Globe.)

Also, if you know other clay hardy onions, feel free to say! :)

Some people direct sow their onion seed even in the north and get decent results, even in clayish soil. Clay based soils need to be handled very carefully, but can provide some marvelous returns. Lots of mulch and compost worked in and be careful to avoid compacting it. If handled properly there is no soil type more potentially productive. Of course there is probably no soil type more difficult to handle either.

@shule

we grow 1015 from sets. It's not a multiplier though.

I intend to grow some Copra sets this summer. We always used Stuttgarter sets back home when I was a yonker, or whatever they had in the grocery store (all country grocery stores carry onion sets and seed potatoes back home). Friends back in Iowa City years ago grew 2 1/2 to 3 inch cooking onions from direct seeding. I have had pretty good success replanting the smaller of the onions from Copra plants and growing them on a second season with very little bolting. Growing one's own onion sets is pretty easy, just plant the seed pretty thick and do not thin, but do keep them well watered.

There are a number of ways of doing this and still getting pretty decent onions.

I have a pretty cool multiplying onion that seems to be hard to come by from my research on the internet. My grandpa grew them back in the day. I've been dividing them and increasing our inventory for the last couple year. We are gggoggoigoing to start selling them next spring. Not sure what thier scientific name is, but my grandpa always callcalled the multiplying table onions. I just finished building our website www.multiplyingonion.com This things grow like weeds!

Sorry for the typos, it hard typing on a cell phone

I have a nesting onion & a walking onion.

Yours is a green Spring onion, no bulb, just the green tops.