Zoemom,

You don't need to do a thing and if you set aside a small part of your planting and don't cut that for greens you should have topsets there next summer. It won't hurt to sidedress lightly and mulch, but the topset onions don't need to be babied.

Zoemom, in addition to OldDutch's advice, I would recommend not transplanting them. They do not require rotation or transplanting... in fact, they will build up strength over the years if left undisturbed. My main bed has been in the same place since 1997, and is still growing strong.

If you still wish to move them, it is best to do so when the plants are dormant. For me, dormancy follows the maturity of the bulbils, sometime in August. All of the foliage dies back except the central stalk that holds the bulbils. I'm not sure when yours would go dormant, though, in your year-round gardening climate.

Mine came back out of dormancy about a month ago (as they do every Fall) and I will be harvesting scallions until it gets well below freezing.

zeedman is correct. Just treat them like a very persistant, widely adapted perennial. Generally every bit as hardy, dependable and carefree as say daylilies. Reds and purples stronger flavored, the whites a bit milder, if you need to be that distinct. Just about the easiest food you can grow.

Thank you OldDutch and Zeedman. I should say that it was first put in pots, and I did cut it for green as it grew well. Then 2 months ago I transplanted it to the garden bed.
Since then it has not grown well and I no longer cut for greens as I am afraid they will die.

If I am to just let it be, I am afraid it will die?
When in the year should it have topsets?

Thanks,
Zoemom

My walking onions only stop growing (but do not die) when the deep cold of Winter sets in. In Spring, growth resumes, and the stalk with topsets appears in early Summer.

Without the pause in growth caused by freezing temperatures, your onions should grow throughout the winter. I'm really not sure what the life cycle of walking onions will be in a warm climate, since they are a cold-adapted... but I would expect that topsets would appear from healthy plants in early Spring. If the plants are weak, you might not get topsets the first year, or only small ones.

By the way, you mentioned "cutting" the plants for scallions. Did you mean trimming from the top? Walking onions usually grow in clusters, and that method weakens all the plants in the cluster. It is better to carefully cut out a plant or two from the cluster, leaving several healthy plants to reproduce. If you carefully cut straight down while pulling a stalk outward, you can remove that entire stalk with only minor damage to those around it. The remaining plant(s) will divide at the base to rebuild the cluster; mine do so following dormancy, or when growth resumes in Spring. That method has served me well harvesting from the old patch mentioned in my previous post. Plus, that way you can harvest the base of the stalk... which in my opinion, is the best part (until the bulbil stem rises, at which time it gets tough).

I had thought it was impossible to kill walking onions by simple neglect. For years my parents had them as volunteers along the edge of their main garden. More than anything all that was done was to keep them from invading further.

I got some from my sister last spring, separated the bulbils and set them out and only one seemed to do anything at all. The rest just disappeared and finally the last one went dormant about the middle of summer. Now they are ALL coming back up as fall comes on. Every one of the original bulbils now has several shoots. I could have sworn I lost all but the one. In fact I got some more from my sister and they have been added to the bed, and it turns out they weren't needed.

This type of onion doesn't need to be babied. Just give it a chance to establish itself is all. If it mopes at all at first, it very likely will not be moping for very long. A couple of months should just about do it and then new and likely vigorous growth should be showing up very soon.

Thanks all. We dont have winter but I will wait until next spring since it has been only one year. I will take note to not cut for the greens but take the whole bulb too.

Thank you for your both of your help Old Dutch and Zeedman.

Harvesting/removing topsets is how a person easily controls walking onions. A half hour of harvesting and a half hour of weeding each year is all I need to control my 5 foot by 5 foot bed. Usually the only weeds are an occasional thistle and some rhizomatous grasses that creep in. 15 minutes to refresh the mulch, and the labor is finished for another year.

One hour and fifteen minutes per year to maintain a perennial food source just does not seem to be that big of a deal to me...

Now, skip that maintenance just one year and things can easily become an out of control mess with topsets sprouting all over the place. Human carelessness is how this plant spreads and gets out of control in the garden, it is not the fault of the plants. In fact I find the walking onion to have a rather interesting method of propagation and survival.

I plant the onion plants in rows in the bed for ease of maintenance...

Every three years or so I regenerate my walking onions by planting a new bed right next to the old one, and I dig up the old bed and toss the plants on the brush pile. Never discard new topsets or old rooted, sprouting topsets carelessly. They are hardy and will grow anywhere if given the opportunity. Never till an old bed without making certain any fallen or rooting topsets have been removed, or there will be walking onions sprouting all over the garden.

Every September when topsets are maturing and parent plants' stalks are starting to fall over is when I harvest topsets. I pickle some and store some for fall planting. For my area this is getting to be the time of year for planting the bulblets for harvesting as green onions in spring, one of the earliest foods I can harvest along with green garlic and ramps. Good stuff, cannot beat fresh alliums harvested in springtime after eating stored and preserved food during the long winter. That is why I grow walking onions.

I plant garlic second half of October. Garlic is planted first, followed by a bed of potato onions, a bed of shallots, and several rows of winter onion bulblets. Thus begins my 2015 gardening season.

Topsets will usually keep in storage through winter. After fall planting I save some so I can plant in springtime in order to extend the harvest. As in fall, I plant them in spring when I again plant potato onions and shallots (usually late April). Garlic bubils usually keep until spring as well, and I keep and plant some of them in order to extend the spring green garlic harvest.

I know it is obvious to most, but in case someone is new to walking onions be sure to break apart the topsets into individual bulblets before planting for spring green onions, do not stick the whole topset into the ground. (I have heard of people doing this, as well as planting whole garlic bulbil heads and even whole garlic bulbs, not knowing that bulblets, bulbils, and bulb cloves are supposed to be separated and planted individually). Plant the inidividual bulblets correct end up with a spacing of around two inches. Harvest usually starts around the second week in April around my area. Enjoy!

-Tom

I keep a patch of walking onions in the garden as a "Prepper" item. I can leave them there and they will take care of their selves, pretty much, and I not only have some onion but the seed onions for a new much bigger bed if needed. I usually reset the bed every couple of years and chop and freeze the parent bulbs. Love them.

If you like garlic sauce, just try the walking onions in the garlic sauce with the garlic...outstanding! Also if the walking onions are left to keep growing, not sure how many years it takes, mine were somewhere around 5 or 6 years the top sets will produce much larger bulbs and really worth the wait! Picture is comparison of larger walking onions to the regular small ones.

5 or 6 years? Wow! I bought some last spring on Ebay. Planted them. They all thrived, and one gave us about 5 bulbs on top. Those are now rooted and starting to put out green onions. I'm willing to wait. I love having green onions for salads all summer and fall.

Suzy I was talking about the size of the bulbs that grow on the top sets.

Walking onions are hard to kill. I was given some (maybe 3-5, not many) at a swap in Colorado several years ago, I think in 2009, or maybe 2010. I planted them, and they produced topsets, which I planted as well. Before I got to do much with them, we moved to WA. I took a few of the EWOs and put them in a pot. We rented a house the first year here, and they sat in a planter in what turned out to be terrible potting soil, at a house with little sun. Then we moved during the second summer, but had to do many renovations, so they sat again in the container. Sometime before the 3rd summer, I put them in the ground (that was for 2013 I believe). I think that was during the fall, and then the slugs and caterpillars chewed them down about to the ground. In 2014, I harvested tons of (small) topsets. I harvested small bulbs which we ate (cooked only, they're pretty intense otherwise). I replanted the 30" diameter ring with them, using older starts in the center to grow more topsets, and a heavy planting of bulbils for scallions. In the fall, the slugs and caterpillars decimated them again, and they've grown their greens back just fine this winter. We used some in a stir-fry a couple weeks ago. I gave away a bunch of topsets, and still have a bunch left (looking just fine, with little green sprouts trying to start, in a cardboard box in the mostly shady breezeway. I'll probably plant them for more scallions.

They grow themselves. I don't fertilize or even water them. I just divide them every few years. They're the first things I get to eat from the garden, as soon as the ground thaws in March.

Rodney

I grow them for the green leaves... I can't get enough because I almost always cook with onion greens so I'm happy to have them around....

I'm very excited this morning. I got some little baby starts on Ebay last spring. They all grew and one top-set happened which also grew. We enjoyed those green leaves until the weather got really cold. With spring sunshine, they are all green and beautiful. An odd thing is happening. Some are misshapen and curly sort of. I think I have seen the light! New top-sets are forming. A lot of them! Having had these for one year, and learning their cycle is fun! Enjoying the green onions in salads is better!

Walking onions really are hard to kill, they will take more than I thought. I stuck a few in a big pot of soil that I had on the deck last fall. I figured they would freeze since they were in a pot and we had record cold weather this winter. But they are thriving!

I have been using the greens in my Hercules peas that I put up last summer. I think the potting soil made them more pungent because they are stronger tasting than the ones in the ground. Dang they are so good!

I would love to add something, but other then saying that I have grown walking onions for 5 year & love them raw & in soup.

Everything else has been covered very well above.

I enjoy their novelty and the look. So far have never cooked with them. I saved the topsets and gifted to gardeners in my area.

One more reason: I already have usable scallions on my walkers here in Zone 4 and it is still not yet to mid April. One of the earliest, natural foods one can grow in this country.

I was so excited to find topsets forming. They are coming out of the tight skin that held them. Amazing. This is our first year with them and they taste so good!

one use that i have employed but not commented on until i was sure about the result. i plant them fairly heavily around the base of new/young fruit and nut trees in my "natural area" to deter the antlered vermin. so far it has worked fairly well. the browsing is still a bit of a problem but in 2 years none of the trees surrounded by the walkers has been rubbed. every other tree i have planted that is out in the open (more or less) has been. I am going to put garlic chives and onion all around under my chinquapins this year and see if it deters anything.

I wonder if gophers like them? We have to plant everything in a gopher basket. I'd love it if they would keep gophers away from the roots of our fruit trees!

i doubt they go deep enough, you could try growing some castor beans. just keep the kiddies etc away from them. they get pretty tall, but i would think you could prune them down to actually look sorta nice. dont know for sure as i can only grow them as an annual and they dont get very tall for me

Pocket gophers or ground squirrel types? Pocket gophers actually trap pretty easily. Ground squirrels and chipmunks on the other hand are more problematic. Around here the biggest challenge to young fruit trees are the cottontails, but using a decent trunk wrap or a chicken wire cage works pretty well, and most danger is during winter. The onion family may or may not work to repel rodents. They can and often do learn to eat them just like we do.

Personally I avoid castor beans because of their toxicity. But they will work. There also some euphorbs that also work, but some of them can become invasive, and they all have juice that can be an irritant, depending on one's susceptibility.

I have one of the euphorbias, i hate it due to its invasive nature. i am in michigan and have a raised cactus bed. the chipmunks like to burrow at the base of some of the larger ones for a nice gated community kind of thing. it doesnt hurt anything until winter when the cavity under the plant causes it to heave. the uphorbia has kept them out, but it also keeps me busy weeding. and i am the only one that can, wife and kids have as high of a quality reaction to it as poison ivy

chipmunks are super easy to eliminate with a 5 gallon pail, 2 gallons of water, and small back of sunflower seeds. i live in the country and like the chippies and feed them, that said, if they or any other little critters get to be too much (rabbits) i shoot them. with the exception of rabbits and every once in a while skunks, i can keep them away with undesirable plants or a concoction of ghost peppers-veg oil-water and dish soap in a spray bottle

Back on the farm the 5 gal pail of water worked to keep 13 striped ground squirrels down. That and a clout for when the water finally filled up the burrow and forced the little buggers to come up and face the clout. We never got em all, but we were quite able to keep the numbers down and the farm cats occasionally got a dietary supplement.

FWIW lots of folks have the same kind of reaction to the euphorbs and I personally would not plant them myself, but some folks get decent service out of them.

No matter where you live, there are challenges. Pocket gophers. Hubby is a squeem and doesn't want to trap. Some of our vineyard neighbors just trap and throw them over for the coyotes, but we don't wish to attract their kind...... We do have a huge castor bean bush, and we put the seeds in the tunnels when we can. Spring time. Mounds everywhere. Near the castor bean bush there are zero mounds. It protects 2 avocados, 2 pakistan mulberry trees, and one apple tree. I may just plant more of those. Big property here so a lot for gophers to enjoy. Back to those walking onions! Going to use them in salad tonight. Love having them around. Another thing they don't bother is Moringa Oliefera. It's drought tolerant, edible, but the roots are pure poison. Hmmmmmm

When the top sets emerge, they look like this.

I have some growing right now but was wondering, how early can those top sets be planted..? I wanted to give some to my brother but I always cut them off when a lot older.. The leaves are barley sprouting out of the covers right now...

I would wait till they are fully developed, maybe late June or Late July.

You can plant them then or put them in the refrigerator until it cools off in late Fall.

If you have a decent patch, you can give the brother a small set or clump of plants with their fully developed roots. He can plant it as is or split it down to individual plants. There are very few if any plants that transplant so easily and successfully and are so forgiving in the process as the walking onions. Otherwise let the bulbils develop until the tops carrying them start to kink over like is mentioned above.

Bringing this thread back to the top:

Another use for walking onions, that should have been obvious (as was pointed out recently by my sister) is to eat the scapes as they start to develop, sorta like one does with garlic scapes. On the walking onions they are all edible and the hollow stems can even be stuffed with a wide variety of fillings. You aren't going to kill the bulbs if you cut back the tops a little. You get the added benefit of decreasing the number of bulbils that might spread to areas you do not want them to get into.

Never even thought of eating the scapes, let alone stuffing them. Interesting.

Rodney

I had never thought of that either, not sure why. I think that is a great idea and will give it a try.

An interesting idea... and it solves the problem of too many bulbils. I'll have to try that next year.

Last year I was successful at growing these onions indoors during winter, might try that again just to use the scapes/stems and stuff them. That was a great idea and do not want to wait for next year! Thank you for the suggestion :)

I'm a newbie to perennial onions, but after much research have just finished planting 20 Catawissa EWO top set bulbs, 5 very small sprouted heritage white topset, about 100 of unknown EWO bulbils from the topsets, about 75 white multiplier bulbs, 40 potato onions fro Kelly Winterton and about 50 yellow potato onions from SESE. Also about 50 sweet vidalia types from Lowes. I'm looking for perennial onions year round. We use a lot and I figure we have enough to use without having to buy any, between the EWO's and white multipliers for green onions and the potato onions for cooking. Hopefully, I will not have to buy any onions unless a disaster occurs in my urban garden. The surprising thing to me is that all these onions require very little space. The potato onions went into a prime sun area, the rest went into partial shade, since, as you guys have said, the EWO's and multipliers can produce in less than optimal conditions. I'm no till and heavy mulch so don't anticipate weed issues, but the onions are popping right through the mulch.

do you guys think this will meet my goal of perennial onions without buying any? Lots of good info in this thread.

Wow, sounds like you have a great start. I grow and love yellow potato onions originally purchased from Southern Exposure seed exchange in VA several years ago. If given optimum conditions you will find that a few can get rather large but most will be small and medium sized. I think the varied sizes is great since they can be used for different things. I usually plant mine in Oct or Nov and harvest in early summer/late spring so they occupy the ground mostly during the colder months which is nice. I cannot think of enough good things to say about heritage sweet white egyptian/walking onions. This particular strain is much milder than any other walking onion I have tried. I even like to use the in ground shallot sized bulbs for cooking once the tops die back in early summer. But it reigns in my opinion as a scallion and can be harvested this way most of the year especially during the cooler months including winter. One thing I have noted is that these "in ground" bulbs are not for storing and need to be used soon after harvesting. Potato onion on the other hand is an excellent keeper once harvested.

Shane, any idea where I can find more of the Heritage white? Email is genesmith325@me.com

I got mine from here, although they are listed as out of stock. Email them to get on a waiting list. All of mine looked and smelled great and everyone of them sprouted. http://www.egyptianonions.com/

Thanks, I just received my Catawissas from him and he did send me 6 very small heritage. I'll try him again in the spring.

I am not aware of a source, my original source from FL is no longer selling them but if you do a google search I bet you could find them. However since you have a start you should not need any extra. They multiply very fast. You can also propagate them by planting the topsets you get. These onions can be multiplied quickly, trust me. Just make sure they get lots of sun and keep them weeded.

Here: http://heirloomonions.com/?page_id=270

http://www.egyptianonions.com/Pages/catalog.html

Finally, just found and ordered 40 heritage white from Egyptianonions.com, after eating the white multipliers and few of Kelly's potato onions all spring, I have narrowed my selections down to three varieties of perennial onions: heritage sweet white EWO, Kelly's potato onions and a white multiplier.

The white multipliers and the heritage EWO are from the Deep South and suit my taste buds, and should provide green onions year round. Kelly's Green mountains will give me storage onions year round, therefore perennial onions that suit my taste buds and no more buying onions from the grocery store.

Pretty excited about my plan, Heritage Whites and White Multipliers from Florida for year round green onions and Kelly's potato onions for storage, all well suited to my climate and taste buds.

One source I found for heritage sweet white topset onions is Just Fruits and Exotics in FL.

shane11 could you share a link??

justfruitsandexotics.com

Mine are very tough this year. I guess from lack of rain. I have some top sets if anyone wants them. First come first serve. Free. They are Egyptian walking that's all I remember, because I bought them so long ago.

I have Egyptian,I think I have had them in 2010. I am looking for potatoes onions.

Egyptian are easy to grow & hardy, are small, but taste good.