Walla Walla onion divided?

16 years ago

Last year I planted some Walla Walla plants in a raised bed that has a lot of other things in it, including a honeysuckle plant climbing an 8ft tall CRW tomato cage, some asian & turban garlic, asparagus, etc. The honeysuckle got pretty big that it made shade in the bed at certain hours. Weeds got pretty bad too, and I didn't get much of a harvest, matter of fact I just let everything go without doing much to the bed.

Anyway, this year, at least 1 or 2 Walla Wallas left in the bed from last year look like they divided like shallots, perfectly into 3's. They still have a 4ft tall or so flower stalk on each, which I figured I'd save seeds.

Has anybody, maybe even Yopper or Tom G ever seen this happen with large variety onions? I did plant a few purple/gray shallots in the same bed but nowhere near where these are. These have yellow wrappers like a normal Walla Walla just that they are teardrop shaped and connected at the shared centerpoint... kinda like the Mercedes logo. The flower stalks are thick, maybe 2'' diameter, even thicker than walking onions, and about 4ft tall with 3 to 4 inch round flowers.

I can't think of any other onions or shallots it could have crossed with as nothing else was flowering last year not even these. I grow Catawissas, I'itoi, and your typical varieties like Candy, WW, Ailsa Craig, Cippolini, and others as well as a couple shallot varieties, but don't think they could have crossed last year to get 4x3'' "shallonions" now.

I'll try to get a pic before I harvest them. Comments are appreciated. Thanks.

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Comments (5)

yopper
16 years ago
Korney I have never left any onions in the ground over winter so I'am not the one to ask.If you save seed it will be interesting to see what you get. Keep us posted next year!You may have developed a new onion!
YOPPER
korney19
Original Author
16 years ago
I'll try saving seeds and maybe Tom will trade me some Candy seeds next year. haha.

Anyways, here's the pic, I had to use a penny for size reference because quarters don't grow on trees around here and I got a bunch of ruptured disks causing sciatica and can't bend down to retrieve it--at least the coin toss got close enough to the onion to take a pic.

{{gwi:366298}}

I think I have 2 like this and 1 or 2 that are doubles instead of triples. Anybody else ever see this happen? All are Walla Wallas. I think Tom (G) used to get doubles with Ailsa Craig but that was in the same year not overwintered.

Mark
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yopper
16 years ago
Very interesting,I have never seen any thing like that!Good luck with Tom!!HA HA
YOPPER
Mark
16 years ago
I've had lots of Wallas divide into doubles, it's fairly common. It's even something that seed companies will boast about when they have a strain that won't divide much.
Your onion photo however is much more interesting. I've never seen them divide so much that they appear to be separate, usually it's just 2 halves of the same round shape.
Is it possible that there were just 3 onion plants in the same spot?
As far as crossing with another allium: That would be determined by the seed you planted last year.
korney19
Original Author
16 years ago
Last year, and for at least a few years now, I've bought plants from Dixondale, I haven't planted seeds in many years, and those seeds were always started indoors.

Most of my plants were about pencil thickness, a few were thicker and most were thinner. All were planted on a 6'' spacing grid, single plants. There aren't many plants around that one because they were pulled last year or lost to weeds or other competition, I've only pulled a couple others that flowered this year.

I've had Ailsa Craigs that had doubles in the first year and am familar with those type doubles, however, they are like a large bulb with a smaller one attached to it. These are in their 2nd year and nearly equally divided with flat areas where they touched, like shallots.

They seem to only have single flower stalks, each start at the neck and are about 1 to 2 inches wide about midway up the stalk, which seems hollow, ending in a flower ball about 3'' diameter atop 4ft tall stalks. They don't appear to have alternating leaves like onions or garlic usually do, and the stem/stalk seems hollow like walking onions, which are present in many places in my garden.