The Long Island Seed Project
Alliums: Onions, Scallions and Leeks
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Contents
- Allium Seed Production
- Egyptian or Walking Onions
- Leeks
- Bulb Onions
- Scallion or Green Bunching Onions
- Being a biennial, most alliums (members of the onions family)
must go through a dormant storage phase before they flower and produce
seed. It takes usually two years. Garden chives and some
scallions are perennial since they keep dividing and producing larger
clumps and can produce seed crops every year. With leeks, they
are best overwintered in cold storage and kept green although there are
very hardy kinds that survive over the winter in the field at
temperatures way below freezing. Some kinds of scallions (the
term scallions is often used to describe an immature onion or a
different species which do not produce bulbs) should also be overwintered like leeks. Again, there are
some very hardy kinds that winter over well in the field. The
tops of many bulb onions will die down in the summer and then the bulbs
are lifted, cured and are stored over the winter in a cool and dry area
wherever your cooking onions best keep. In the spring, plant the bulbs
outside. They will send up flower stalks and will flower on floppy
stems in early or mid summer. When the flowers are pollinated by
insects (for seed purity, grow only one variety of onion), dozens of
small seeds form on the flower head. Wait until the heads begin to
brown (you may begin to see the black seeds exposed), cut the stalks
and hang upside down in a loose (allowing the escape of moisture) paper
bag or sack. The seeds will fall into the bag for next year's crop. The
seeds will fall off the head for a number of days since ripening takes
place over a week or more. When the seed head is completely dry roll them back and
forth in your hands to dislodge remaining seed. Then screen and winnow.
- There are hardy winter leeks and less resiliant summer
kinds. You may not know the hardiness of the leek you are hoping
to save the seen of. A safe way to overwinter the leek is to dig
them out of the ground and store the entire plant in a cold environment
above freezing and humid enough to prevent their roots from drying out.
A potato storage area or root cellar would be a safe bet. For a few
roots, wash the leeks, trim the tops as if preparing to sell them at
market and put a bunch in the vegetable area of your refrigerator until
spring if you can spare the space.
-
Onerwintered leeks will send up a flower stalk and produce a spherical
unbel that will bloom in mid summer. Sometimes the allium stalk becomes
top heavy with the large umbel of flowers or the stalk weakens at the
base causing it to flop down so you may want to stake them to keep them
upright. The Saint Victor Leek we have been raising seed crops of
for years produces huge light lavender heads that are truly beautiful
in late June and into July.
Alliums are pollinated by flying insects which spread the pollen over
long distances. A seed grower can raise several kinds of alliums
and maintain purity only if the alliums are of different species.
Bulb onions are Allium cepa, Leeks are Allium ampeloprasum, Scallions
or Green Bunching Onions are usually Allium fistulosum and Chives are
Allium schoenoprasum.
Insects will pollinate the flowers and leeks will cross-pollinate with
other leeks. Onions are in the same family but are not the same species
and do not cross with leeks. The same is true of chives and some kinds
of scallions which may or may not cross with bulb onions depending on the species. To raise a
pure seed crop of leeks, plant only one variety of leek or isolate your
leek patches as much as possible to prevent the exchange of pollen
between different varieties. Planting different varieties of the same
species 50 or 100 feet apart will limit crossing but it won't eliminate
it and that might be fine for the needs of the typical home gardener.
We are always trying to foil the long range pollination by insects
since we don't have the ability to separate by long distances. Delaying
the flowering of one variety so that it flowers only after the other
finishes is one option (plant one earlier or later). Planting in blocks
instead of rows and then selecting seeds from the interior of the block
helps. Planting two varieties with barriers between the members of the
same species; plant one variety on the east side of the house. the
other on the west side. The barrier can be netting with climbing beans,
a corn patch, etc. Make it a challenge for pollinators to find the
other variety. Bees can roam long distances but they are efficient
creatures and would rather harvest pollen and nectar from all the
flowers of a certain type in the same patch. Alliums that
overwinter such as scallions, bulb onions and leeks flower all about
the same time and early enough that corn and climbing beans are not yet
effective barriers to insect flights so it is not so easy to use these
types of strategies.
There has been much said about the viability of allium seed, leeks,
onions, scallions, chives, etc. Unlike many kinds of vegetable seeds,
their germination may decrease substantially after a year or two. Seed
viability improves if the storage conditions for where the seed is
maintained is cool or cold and kept dry. Don't subject seeds to
dampness and extremes in temperature especially high temperatures. Many
seeds including leek and onion seed store very well once the seed is
dried for storage and then placed in storage under the cold conditions
of the refrigerator (40°F). Place several packets of different
kinds of seed in a jar on a day when humidity levels are low, seal with
the lid and just put it in the fridge.
Egyptian Onion or Walking Onion
For many years this was my favorite all purpose onion. Always
just outside my kitchen door, the patch of walking onions (Allium cepa
var. proliferum) was there in summer and in winter to quickly grab a
handful of greens that I could toss into omelets, burgers or
salads. Even the little topsets I could use like garlic cloves in
my cooking. There are a few different varieties, all old time
selections. In my parents garden they were real tall (or maybe
it's because I was so short), the strain I have from the old Pilgrim
State Hospital Farm which was in Brentwood and is a strain also from
the 1950's was shorter but more aggressive spreaders. I have seen
some kinds that even produce a few usually sterile flowers in among the
topset bulbs. The in-ground bulb divides to produce clumps on
onion greens. In late spring they send up their "seed" 2 foot
high stalks which bear a cluster of small bulbils which will send out
shoots as well. The top-heavy mass topples to the ground where
the top set "bulbils" root and help to form an ever expanding patch.
Some folks find the onions a bit hot for their taste but not me and
like any onion, once used in cooking they become more mild and sweet.
Leeks are versitile in use and easier for us to store and raise seed
crops than bulb onions. They are very pleasant used in salads,
minced for their mild flavoring or on the barbeque during the summer
when they are still small. A row of leeks nicely tended and
hilled to blanche those beautiful thick stems really pays off big in
the fall and winter when those frosty days call for a bowl of hearty
potato leek soup. Leeks find their way into many of the winter dishes I
prepare. Often I'll use them like a mild onion as a flavoring or when I
am doing a stir-fry or tossing a massive stem into the roasting pan to
make a great gravy or in winter stews. One doesn't use the large
leafy part on the leek because it is tough.
For a seed crop we have a mass cross of the hardiest of a dozen or so
varieties that winter over here in the field. The summer leeks are too
tender to survive the lowest temperatures, which can dip down to 10
degrees F. in early to mid January or even below 0. We expect to
maintain as much diversity in this mix as we can to get leeks that
serve a number of culinary purposes for us.
Leek seed is sown in late winter or early spring indoors in seed flats
and later transplanted to the garden. They respond well to good
garden soil rich in organic material. To produce long white
shanks you can begin to hill the plants early on. The hilling
will also protect the leek during the winter.
We also save the seed and continue to improve Saint Victor, an ancient
European Leek which performs well for us and always yields quality
leeks for the table, beautiful lavender flowers and a bountiful seed
crop without any fuss. Saint Victor is an odd kind of leek in
that the normally gray-green foliage develops a pronounced purple cast
after frost which is maintained during the winter.
We noticed that St. Victor can produce in the second season a cluster of very large and
pleasant tasting garlic-like
cloves at the base of the stalk as the shank of the leek breaks down and just before the
flower stalk is produced. We discovered the bulbs when we pulled about 70% of our overwintered St. Victor crop out (selecting for the best purple foliage) in April. The cloves are a lot like the huge elephant garlic that you see
in produce markets which is, interesting enough, in the leek family, not a garlic. I wonder if this is the
"bulbing" characteristic that has been selected against by modern leek breeders? Heirloom leeks are
looking better and better to me. Another very old kind that I obtained from friends in Europe produced a head with only a few flowers but hundreds of tiny bulbil topsets. Very neat. Chance discoveries like this will often send me into a new direction of selection and my breeding objectives change. I never imagined that I would have so much fun with leeks of all vegetables.
I really ought to specialize in
a particular crop, maybe that would allow more time to produce significant
breeding accomplishments, but the truth is; that in growing each diverse batch of vegetable seed, especially the less modern varieties,
there is so much to discover and it is just so fascinating. We haven't done much with saving seed to produce bulb onion (Allium
cepa). I would like to, perhaps in the future we will. At latitudes of
40° and higher we grow long day onions or day neutral types.
Long Island is at 40° N which is about the same as much of Spain
and Italy. We have successfully grown onion seed; in fact, from Spain, Italy, Japan,
England and Austrailia. There are also really fine kinds that
were developed in the 19th century in Connecticut and Massachusetts and
New York Early is a variety from the mid 1900's which is a good keeping
variety still worth growing We managed to produce a small seed crop. Our local onions tend to be selected
for fertile river valley soils or muck soils and don't always perform
well on the sandy soils in our gardens. Grow onions fast on rich soils with
ample moisture. We sow seed early (late winter) to obtain nice
sized transplants which go into the garden in spring. That allows
the onion to produce early green onions in late spring and then begin
to bulb up in the early summer during the long days for the fall
harvest. Young onion seedlings and transplants require
care. They do not compete well with weeds. The best storage
kinds are the "hard " onions which are good all-purpose cooking
kinds. The large sweet kinds such as the Spanish Onion and the
many developed from this line tend to be poorer keepers. Most
bulb onions tend to winter over poorly in the fields for us although
the Italian "Torpedo Onion or Bottle Onion" from Florence in both red
and brown skin forms seems rather hardy and have produced seed here.
Hard onions properly cured and dry after harvest will usually last the
winter in a cool but above freezing location. In the spring they
can be planted outdoors for a seed crop which ripens in July usually.
Scallions or Green Bunching Onions
Scallions are used for the tender greens. In some cases they are
produced from young bulb onions (Allium cepa) and there are some kinds
of bulb onions that can be used for both the green scallions and later
on, the developing bulbs. The mild White Spanish Onion is a nice
dual use onion. In fact, there are a few beautiful related white onions that produce nice green scallions that can be marketed with their white bulbs. I would like to look closely at these summer onions someday.
One of the easiest sustainable bunching onions is
the true scallion or Welsh Onion (Allium fistulosum) which is actually Russian, I am told. Some of the
nicest Welsh Onions have been developed in Japan and are essentially
perennial. They are winter hardy (maybe because of Siberian ancestry) and the roots although never
bulbing, produce new green onions by division. The Welsh Onion
can also produce copious seed. We grew several strains and found
variation in flavor and texture. We are now growing a very mild
crisp selection which seems to just get better each year. Home produced onion seed. What can I say? You can't get fresher seed.
Last Modified: June, 2007