General information and discussion about cultivating onions, garlic, shallots and leeks.
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
January 27, 2012 | #31 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: northern NJ zone 6b
Posts: 1,862
|
I've never grown onions myself, but wow this was an interesting thread. Very neat looking onion plants!
__________________
Antoniette |
January 27, 2012 | #32 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Albuquerque, NM - Zone 7a
Posts: 209
|
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
Excuse me... What I mean to say is, if the bulbs at the base of the original "weird" plants looked just like California Reds, the plants are surely just odd variations of California Red. If you've been planting many of yours from topsets to begin with, it makes sense that sooner or later, some of their descendants might adopt the habit of producing "hairy" topsets which then produce little topsets of their own. If some specimens of Allium vineale can do it, why not Allium cepa? About Allium vineale, the infamously invasive "crow garlic," I have more to say, but I think I'll do that in another thread. The long and short of it is, I want some. |
January 28, 2012 | #33 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: perth, western australia
Posts: 1,031
|
ummmm....
can i help in any way???? LOL |
February 13, 2012 | #34 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Medbury, New Zealand
Posts: 1,881
|
Quote:
Well not really,ive been growing California Red for/from seed for many years and it was only the season before last that one single onion plant in the seed bed grew topsets for the first time. The plan now is to grow three separate blocks from this line ,1 bed will be this seasons onions that grew without any flowering/topset stems (in the photo),this is to see if they will grow either a flower or a topset stem this coming spring. The second block which ive already done is a bed of this seasons harvested topsets,this is to make sure i get more topset bulbs to carry on this experiment and in the spring i'll plant another bed of topset to see if they ALL grow into a normal onion without growing a flowering/topset stem
__________________
Richard |
|
February 13, 2012 | #35 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Albuquerque, NM - Zone 7a
Posts: 209
|
I admire your rigorous devotion to the scientific method.
I don't know if your tests, as you've described them, will provide enough significant data to figure out if the phenotype is due to genetics, culture/environment, or some interesting interaction between the two. Out of curiosity: Have you been growing your Cal Reds from saved seed, or commercial? I was trying to rule out, if we could, the possibility of an intra-genus cross with some other species of allium, but I'm guessing now, that hypothesis may still be on the table? |
February 13, 2012 | #36 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Medbury, New Zealand
Posts: 1,881
|
Quote:
__________________
Richard |
|
August 18, 2012 | #37 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: MA
Posts: 776
|
Fascinating onion Richard. Good luck with your experiments and if you got a mutation that creates a new onion for you would be good news too. It can go in a catalog as Watson red tree onion. Less fuzzy to plant bulbils like sets in the fall than seed indoors or in the greenhouse and then transplant in spring. How long ago did you spotted those 2 bulbils? That is probably were the mutation started.
__________________
Wendy Last edited by wmontanez; August 18, 2012 at 08:32 PM. |
August 18, 2012 | #38 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Medbury, New Zealand
Posts: 1,881
|
I was just only walking past the bed where these onions are growing and thinking i should up date this thread so the end part of winter here has been so warm that they have really grown a lot.
ive replanted the onions below back in the middle of winter and last week did a spring sowing of bulblets or bulbils as some people call them,keen to see what difference there is between the autunm and spring sown ones. How the autumn sown and replanted onions are looking as of this morning
__________________
Richard |
August 18, 2012 | #39 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Medbury, New Zealand
Posts: 1,881
|
Quote:
This will be the third season coming up since first noticing the mutated flower head
__________________
Richard |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|