Walking onion and potato onion supplier

Hello everyone,
I’m looking to see if anyone can swap or provide a supplier of Egyptian walking onions plants or bulbs and potato onions-red, yellow or white.

 

Good evening Matt and welcome to the site. What are potato onions?

 

Sounds like a marriage made in heaven to me. The only way to improve on that would be potato cheese onions.

 

I have seen some Egyptian walking onions for sale on ebay if that helps..

Dave

 

Found this on a site ..

"Potato onions enjoyed widespread popularity before the turn of the century. Nearly every gardener grew potato onions and they were available in yellow, white, and reddish-brown varieties, the yellow being most common. Potato onions are still a local favorite in some areas of Virginia. Each bulb cluster of potato onions may contain many bulbs, averaging 2 to 2-1/2" in diameter. When a small bulb (3/4") is planted, it will usually produce one or two larger bulbs. When a large bulb (3 to 4") is planted, it will produce approximately 10 to 12 bulbs per cluster. These bulbs of various sizes may be used for eating, storing, or replanting. By replanting a mixture of sizes you will have plenty of sets for next year's crop and plenty of onions for eating during the year. Potato onions can increase 3- to 8- fold by weight each year depending on growing conditions. Potato onions store better than most seed onions, and individual bulbs can be grown in flower pots to produce a steady supply of green onions during the winter."

So they are Onions ...

Dave

 

Is "potato onion" an American term for what we in the UK call a multiplier onion ?

Yellow Potato Onion (Hill, Mother, or Pregnant Onion) 8 oz. [66601] - $11.95 : Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Saving the Past for the Future


What is your location mattcolquhoun ?

 

My location is Scotland.
I've looked on Ebay and managed to find red and white potato onions and 3 varieties of Egyptian walking onions all from the same seller.
many thanks Matt

 

Sounds like shallots to me.

 

I have been collecting various multiplier onion varieties and have nine from garden organic which I am growing for the first year. In fact all of the onions are in their first year. I have managed to get some potato onions from America. Three varieties in all and all different in habit. I have received eight brown potato onions from Australia and have just planted twenty red potato onions that I have received from Canada.
From the research that I have carried out It is very hard to say which of all of these onions from various Countries is the real potato onion.
The ones I have received from Canada look as though they may be red bulb onion sets but I will see if they do in fact divide.
The one that I would like to be the real potato onion is the one supplied by Southern seed exposure which I only have three bulbs of. I have two small bulbs in the first year cycle and one large bulb that is dividing into twelve small bulbs for planting next year.
This onion was saved from extinction by Ken Klotz in the early nineteen eighties and he tried to sell these commercialy from Kalmia farm which no longer exists.
The yellow potato onion is probably the only one of the three varieties that still exists.
There are people selling a white potato onion but whether this is the one that Mr Klotz saved is not certain.
The yellow potato onion is a smaller version of a bulb onion but where the bulb onion has only one eye normaly the potato onion has up to twelve or even more on the larger bulbs.
These bulbs are larger than a shallot and are round in shape with larger flater leaves than shallots.
I would be very wary of buying potato onions from the Ebay seller mentioned as they look like shallots to me and as the red potato onion may well be extinct it is unlikly that it is a true potato onion. I doubt whether the other seller in England is selling the potato onion as I know of no one in the UK who has this onion.
But as the people who could tell us what are potato onions are long dead then we have to make our own decision as to what is the true potato onion.

The onion from America, Australia and possibly Canada described as potato onions but differing from the one I have just described, but all similar onions to each other could also be potato onions as it is strange that similar onions from such differing locations are called by the same name. these onions are similar in size to shallots but are onions rather than shallots but divide in the same way without making the large bulb.
I have also eight of Kelly Wintertons potato onions the green mountain variety which do not show the characteristics of the ken Klotz onion and are closer to a normal bulb onion as far as I can see.
One of the onions sold to me from America by the name potato onion is very prolific and I have planted 60 bulbs of this and from the photos I have seen each bulb could divide into twenty or thirty bulbs in one clump but at present have only divided into three or four bulbs. They appear to grow in the spring then go dormant in summer then divide again late summer to autumn.
I have an article showing a cross section of the Ken Klotz potato onion which I could forward to anyone interested. This shows the onion shape and numerous eyes that will divide into small onions to plant to produce the large bulbs in the second year.
This has been scanned from a gardening article written in 1982 by ken Klotz.

 

I have posted on the wrong thresd sorry

 

Interested thread - and good to hear of the collection you've built up JohnJohn, trying to find what you hoped was the original.

How's the collection / growing in 2012 gone?

I'd be very interested in hearing of what you've found now, having had some of those new varieties growing out this year. I was looking to potentially get the southern seed exchange strain.

I actually came to potato onions via a different route - from reading a number of market gardening books which I have which are written around 1800 onwards.

The snippets in these books may be of interest in your own research?

Thanks,
Douglas

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Douglas

I'm afraid JohnJohns not logged on since last may. If you start a private conversation with him, that will automatically e mail him the notification, should get his attention

 

Thanks Zigs - have done now!