Are you talking about perennial onions like walking onions or Egyptian onions or something?

Or, do you mean the typical bulbing onions usually planted here as annuals from transplants in about January through March and harvested in June or July?

What is it about them that makes them look old?

Dawn

If they are topsetting onions, which I believe they are based on the info in the email you sent me, then you just keep them watered and well-weeded. When their foliage turns yellowish-brown and begins to die down, you dig and harvest them, using some and saving others to replant in fall. Or, as long as your soil drains well enough that they won't rot (and as long as you keep the well-watered in our hot summers) you just harvest some and leave the rest. Many people use the walking onions for their greens but the bulb produced under ground is edible and can be used as well. You also can collect and replant the little bulbs that form at the top of the leaves.

I'm going to link the perennial onion section/growing guide from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange because it discusses the care of perennial onions in great detail. In most sections they give you specific information for top-setting onions, which also are often referred to as Egyptian Walking Onions. Wondering why? Because when those little bulb-like things form on the tops of the leaves, their weight can bring the leaves down to the ground....in a graceful, arching manner although heavy rain can sometimes leave them flattened and on the ground. When the little topset bulb is touching the ground, it can root into the ground and a new plant will form....hence the name "walking onion". If you let them and if the conditions are right, they will 'walk' across your garden over time, starting new plants as they go.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic & Perennial Onion Growing Guide/SESE

Dawn, can you give any more info about what the OP is seeing? I'd like to ID some kind of "onions" we inherited that first seemed to be in the lawn area, but now I think was part of an overgrown bed infiltrated with tons of bermuda and honeysuckle and scrub brush - when we cleared the brush about 8 feet back we found concrete block pavers like a walkway or edging about 4 feet from the fence, so about a 12 foot depth all along on fenceline is where this is located. It did have blackberry bushes in the same region, but we had to cut them to the ground this winter so will have to see if they come back.

There are two types of onion-esque plant I see - one that has very fine bladed, tubular foliage - looks like very thin chives to my eyes. The other one has more of a flat blade with a rounded tip, almost looks like monkey grass or liriope foliage, but the smell of onions when you cut/mow it is very strong. The same area had elephant garlic, which I discovered after the big scapes came up and bloomed last fall/late summer.

Mia, I will try to post some pictures of the 3 different types of winter (non-heading) onions I have.

I made a long post, even went up to moms, 2 of my neighbors and took pictures of growth habits and how they are maintainted. I will try to post again. I dont know much about computers and goof up a lot.

Larry

These are Evergreen bunching onions on the left with large seed heads, Lisbon bunching onions on the right, with small seed heads, Egyptian walking onions on the far end of the row.

this is some of Lisbon and Evergreen given to my neighbor about 1/2 mile away.

This is Lisbon given to my neighbor about 3/4 mile away, he is the only one of us that take good care of his onions.
Both Bill and I let our onion get too thick.

Mia, Larry's photos show examples of the different kinds. To see other photos, go to the SESE catalog and I think they have photos of each kind on the page where they sell them in the fall.

The RP described them in an email to me as having the little topsets common in walking/Egyptian onions, so that made IDing them pretty easy.

It would be hard for me to identify yours based only on a description (it can be hard even with photos), but if you post photos we might be able to ID them from those photos or, if we can't, you could post photos on the Allium photo and the folks there probably could ID them with their eyes closed and one hand tied behind their backs.

The one you described as being like chives might be onion chives. Also, we have a wild plant here in OK (and it is found in many other states) that is often referred to as wild onion or wild garlic. You might be seeing those. I had them in my original garden, which was just fallow farm land turned cow pasture. I had to dig as deeply as 8-9" to get the little bulbs out so that these wild onion things wouldn't take over my garden. Here at our house they start blooming as early as February although March probably is more typical and they bloom for quite a while. Mowing doesn't stop them either---they just regrow and bloom again.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of

Mia, here is a close up of some of the Egyptian walking onions that George sent me. Notice in the center of the picture a seed stalk forming, and the stalk continues to grow taller. They may form 3 or 4 of those little bulb pods with little onions growing from them. When they get too heavy and fall over they take root and grow again.

The next picture is of what we called wild onions. These are behind mom's house. You cant hardly get rid of them. The thing I hated most about them was that the cows would eat them early in the year and milk would taste terrible. I dont know if the cows like them, or if they were in the grass and the cows were so hungry they would eat anything.

Larry

Thanks, Dawn and Larry. I've Googled and looked at the pics here and on seed saver and wonder if I simply have wild onion and wild garlic lawn weeds! Pics from my yard coming now...

The blades are completely flat, not rounded or hollow, and DH likely mowed them as I've never seen scapes or bulblets in the air or bulbs in the ground. This is the onion-ish one next to an elephant garlic on the right. Sorry if it's sideways, dunno why my phone posts pics like that.

One more from above.

Here's the second plant, much finer, taller, tubular foliage.

Larry, they make me think of the pic from your mom's house of wild onions, except floppier, so maybe a weed I should pull.

Mia, I will have to back up and let the pros tell you what it is. If it taste and smelled like garlic, I would think that is what it is. All onions I have seen had hollow leaves, and all garlic had a flat leaf. I dont think soft-necked garlic puts up a seed stalk, and leeks have a much thicker body.

Larry

Larry, you are a pro but maybe not on potential lawn weeds! Here's a pic of one of the stalks broken off, which looks like green onion to me but just at the very base of the plant.

Mia, I had both of the plants that you have when I moved into this house. The chives will spread like crazy and it took several years to get rid of them. I thought the other was a garlic at first so I let it grow a year or two, then finally yanked it all out.

A friend gave me some top set onions and I planted them in my garden, then later moved them to a new spot. I guess I dropped some in front of my storage building, and now I have more growing there than I do in the garden. We don't mow where they are, and just have been using the weed eater and letting them grow. I am going to move them to the farm as soon as I get a place prepared to plant them.

I don't like to use the in-ground part, but I do use the greens.

If they are like what is around hear (the hollow ones) I would dig them. some times they can be pulled, but most often they are too deep. They can be eaten but you can get much tastier ones that wont be so hard to control.
The plants at moms have been cut with the brush hog, or they would be taller, they grow faster than the grass.

Larry

Can you tell if these need to be dug up and split up or anything like that? I am the person that made the original post regarding out of hand onions and here is a picture to give more info. I have 2 more pics but don't know how to load more than one.

This post was edited by pjfair on Fri, Apr 12, 13 at 21:12

Pj, I don't know about your onions (sorry I hijacked your thread) but if you want multiple pics in one thread you have to upload in another app, like Flickr or photobucket. I just do multiple posts for multiple pics, one at a time, to stay within gardenweb and skip a step of upload to third party site.

Mia, I don't mind the 'hijack', just means more info for me and anyone else that has questions! And thanks for the info on uploading pics.

pjfair, sorry I got sidetracked. No picture came through on my computer. I expect you have some type of winter/bunching onion. If they are as thick as the ones in the pictures I posted I would thin them. I hate to through anything away, but bunching onions are so productive it is hard to use all of them. I usually pull most of mine and take to my sister. They clean, chop, and freeze them to use for cooking. They save some for planting, but she has so many mouths to feed that nothing last very long.

It they are bunching onions they wont have much of a head on them, at most a golf ball size head. If they happen to be some type bulbing onion they will need room to bulb up anyway. My bulbing onions I try to get at least 4" or more apart. I think I will have a picture of my onions bulbing, it that will help you in anyway.I doubt you have bulbing onions that are ready to bulb up at this time of year.

Larry

Larry, I said I didn't know how to upload multiple pics but evidently I didn't know how to upload even one! I went back and edited so the pic shows on the forum now anyway. I will dig up some of them at least to see what's happening under there. But from what you are saying, it sounds like they are too thick as they are. Thanks for your input.

the pic did post, looks like good, healthy bunching/winter onions. They are multipliers and do a good job at it. I think I would try to give starts to other people, or in some way thin them out, they will grow faster than you can use them.

Larry

Thanks to everyone that jumped in and especially Dawn and Larry for sharing their knowledge.

Pj, I don't know about your onions (sorry I hijacked your thread) but if you want multiple pics in one thread you have to upload in another app, like Flickr or photobucket. I just do multiple posts for multiple pics, one at a time, to stay within gardenweb and skip a step of upload to third party site.

PJ, those look like Egyptian Walking Onions. If you divide some, I believe you'll get larger top sets. But if you don't, you'll still get usable top sets and plenty of greens. Like Carol mentioned, I use the greens more than anything. I use them all winter long, as onions in my cooking. The greens add the flavor, but then, they also serve as a green vegie, when mixed in stews and stir fries.

George

George, I went to a website for Egyptian Walking Onions and they do look like the ones I have growing in my yard. Thanks for the information.

Mia, I think you have garlic chives, the flat bladed one, and wild onion, the tubular one. Both are edible and both are invasive, coming from seed way too freely. And maybe some form of regular garlic too, next to the elephant garlic. I love the garlic chive's flowers--once I got it out of the garden and into the woods-because it smells like vanilla, not garlic and I pick them for bouqets in midsummer.

Mia...I missed this whole discussion somehow. I should have let you look at my millions of wild garlic/onion in my flower beds. I made the mistake of ignoring them for a couple of years...now I am paying for it. No amount of chemicals makes a difference. The only thing that really works is digging them up. They have a tiny, tiny bulblet. I'm on my third round of digging them up this year. The nice wet ground really helps!

Lisa

Thanks for the info. DH helpfully mowed a huge swath of them down Saturday while I was away at a baby shower, so the point may be moot! Since they are so aggressive, I'll try to dig out the ones that live in the spot that should be "lawn" and the others I might keep an eye on to see what kind of flower they put up before I see if I want to cultivate them anywhere.