Egyptian Walking Onions

Does anyone around the Sacramento Area have Egyptian Walking Onions? Or any place near that sells them?

While setting up my SFG, I dug up my onions to transplant....alas, while at work, my retired husband helped me by cleaning up the back yard stuff that was just lying around and the garbage man came before I got home. Guess my onion went a walking...

We used to have those when I was growing up. They're cool (and as far as I know, still growing at that house on their own.) I hope you have luck in getting some.

I'm in Texas, but if you don't find any I'll be glad to send you some bulbets when they put them up, but it will be a couple of months. I have a ton of them.

I will certainly keep you in mind. Thanks so much. Your's are beautiful!

My Egyptian Walking Onions aren't bearing little bulblets at the top like they're supposed to, but it looks as though they have formed additional onion plants at the base. I know I didn't plant that many of them this spring, and for sure not so close together! Is this normal bunching onion behavior.

Another question: should I separate the new plants so they won't get too crowded?

Don't know the answer, but I hope someone can provide the information you requested because I just received my Egyptian Walking Onion bulblets and want to know what to look for next year when they mature.

I only fairly recently got my own EWO, so I can't say for sure. But, I have grown other bunching onions before, and they took some time before growing bulblets. They split/divided abundantly first, then got bulblets on the flower stalks only after blooming. I would expect these to act similar. Maybe someone with more experience with EWO specifically can join in?

I'm glad you brought this up because I had about 6 -10 little top bulbs in late spring and then no more. The onions stayed healthy and like yours are starting to divide at the base. I have other multipliers planted so haven't been too concerned.

So with your post, I thought I should check this out. I found this website:

http://www.egyptianwalkingonion.com/

Basically, they say they "Don't Walk" their first year (don't make the topsets). So I guess it was weird that I even got any little bulbs this spring!

These are really interesting onions!
Jane

From what I read on another thread about Egyptian Walking Onions they are the same as 'perennial onions". Is that correct?

Anyway, someone gave me some onions she called "perennial onions" this summer. I still have them in a pot. They have one or two little bulbs on the stems. So do I just plant the whole plant in the ground or do I separate each bulb and plant that the same as you do for multiplier onions. Do I take the little purple bulb thingy off the stem and plant that? I am confused. I have never seen these before.

GK

Old Hippie,
From what I read at the egyptianwalkingonion.com website, they are indeed perennial onions. The little bulb can be planted and the sprouts at the base can be planted (those are what I have going on now).

Hope this helps.
Jane

I just planted some of these... great info and thank you!

I have raised EWO most of my life. In my area they are called "Winter onions". (Maybe because they live through the winter?)

If I leave mine alone sometimes they will drop a whole cluster of bulblets which grow in clumps. Sometimes a bulblet, especially the larger ones, will break away from the cluster and drop by itself to start a single onion. It all depends on how the clusters of bulblets land on the soil.

If you don't want them growing in clumps (or "walking" naturally) you can harvest the clusters by hand once they mature, and separate them into individual bulblets to plant wherever you want them or to eat. Those would be considered first year onions and probably wouldn't bulb their first year, although some do. The older clumps will continue growing in place, sending up more bulblet stalks next year.

Although I enjoy my EWOs I don't consider them my maincrop onions. I use them to fill in as green onions when my spring onions are long gone. I also use the bulblets for pearl onions if I have nothing else available, but they are hard to peel. I can usually find a usable green onion in my EWO bed in all but the coldest of the winter months.

Some kind person from the forum sent me a start of Egyptian walking onions last year, but I forgot who. They have grown like mad & made large clumps, plus bulbs on top. I have one section that has fallen over & I'm wondering why & if I need to do anything about it. I've only recently started to harvest a few and already started a larger section from the bulbs & given some away.

dixie wrote:Some kind person from the forum sent me a start of Egyptian walking onions last year, but I forgot who. They have grown like mad & made large clumps, plus bulbs on top. I have one section that has fallen over & I'm wondering why & if I need to do anything about it. I've only recently started to harvest a few and already started a larger section from the bulbs & given some away.

Hey Dix! How goes? And thanks for the package!!!
The Egyption walking onion does exactly what you described. It forms small bulbletts on the top of stalks and then gravity pulls them down, they root and start the process all over again, thus they 'walk' from their original location. I am pleased to see yours doing so well. I am afraid I must relocate mine, they have not felt like walking the past 2 years.

Hello everyone! I have some lovely Egyptian walking onions that my friend gave me a couple of years ago. The sets she gave me came from a plant that was planted from a set her grandfather brought over from Russia!

I planted them last spring, but since they were so small last autumn, I decided to leave them in the ground and harvest them this year. Well, they did much better this year, and even produced the baby bulbs on the top of the stalks.



My issue is, since I got them from a friend (who didn't know what they were either, lol, I found that out on teh internet later on), I have no idea how to grow or harvest these guys. I've been saving the bulbs that have fallen off the top to be planted this fall for next year, but I'm not sure what to do now. When do I harvest them? All of the stalks have bent over now. Should I cut them off? Should I remove all the babies from the top?

If anyone has any experience with these guys, I'd be happy to hear what you have to say!

I have some which I use all yr. as green onions, just snip the stem and chop into whatever needs onions. I've had them a long time and have never 'harvested' them.

There is a bigger bulb in the ground, but I don't know if they will keep or not.



They will only put on a little bulb and another green onion on top of that, if the onion in the ground has been there more than a year. Leave at least a couple of the big bulbs in the ground so it will produce babies. You can dig and eat/move at any time.



They are a more permanent plant like asparagus, they can remain in the ground.

They are called Egypt walking onions, because they bend over, planting the baby in the process. I'm putting mine in their own box this yr. probably a 1 x 2(right now they are in the ground, right by the backdoor.

Jo

I have had them for several years and once they start you can't get rid of them. Fortunately, I love them, and I have co-workers that are more than happy to have me cook things with them (we have a kitchen adjoining the main office). Use the bottom big bulb and the top little bulbs like shallots, and the greens like green onions - they are stronger than green onions, which is one of the things I like about them! I only get to use them for half of the year because the rest of the year they are buried in ice and snow. You definitely don't have to worry about babying these things, as I do nothing but abuse them and they survive our winters in zone 4 just fine with no special treatment or pampering - solidly frozen ground and temps down to -30. They are one of the first things to appear in my yard each spring. Keep them well-contained, never let them forget who's boss, and don't be afraid to be brutal! They can take it!



GG

I have a good stand or two of Egyptian Walking onions which don’t get much use so it’s nice to hear of your good use for them. Do they store well enough to fall harvest some for winter use. Would it work to pot some to bring inside for winter use.

oh these sound like a good thing to have....another reason i love this forum....i keep learning new things each day!!....do you think they would do well in a container?.....my mom is going to be moving and she is giving me a bunch of wooden containers im going to put in strawberries but would love onion's that i could keep year around



hugs

rose

I think they would do well in a container. Don't crowd them in the container, as they need the room to do that themselves! Lop off the bulbules at the top once they form and throw them into another container and you will have the gift that keeps on giving! Personally I can't bring any inside for the winter because I have cats that will chew them up - and onions are poisonous to cats.



Wait! I just realized that I am moving my seed starting station downstairs into the basement (no puddies allowed in basement) - I could set up a pot with my lights down there!!!!! Green onions all winter! Got a plan.



I LOVE THIS FORUM!!! BOUNCING IDEAS!!!



GG

That it certainly is. I just learned how to keep the wife from getting another cat,since she does a lousy job of keeping them, lol and a big thank you.

westie42 wrote:That it certainly is. I just learned how to keep the wife from getting another cat,since she does a lousy job of keeping them, lol and a big thank you.

Glad I could help!

GG



PS - They shouldn't have garlic either (both are alliums, related, and poisonous to puddies!)

For those of us with top setting Egyptian onion bulbils, you can take off the little itty bitty onions and put them in regular soil.  They grow easily and you can save your precious Mels Mix for other things.  I put these in soil where a compost heap was curing then moved away.  The grass was smothered so I put the onions there.  And they are growing pretty fast since transplanted about  2-1/2 weeks ago.

ill bet that's some RICH soil there! are the earthworms still doing their thing there?

I suppose there were some worms around there.  When I removed the cured compost heap a couple months ago, the soil dried up pretty quickly and returned to typical Ohio rock-hard clay soil.  Any smart worms should've left   
I transplanted these bulbils just a couple weeks ago.