strange onion flower head

[remy]

Originally Posted by Medbury Gardens

The only thing of concern now is pollen cross contamination if or when the flowers on the mutated plants open,what do you think remy??.

Not all mutations are permanent so whether the trait is passed down or not or shows up as strongly is a guess. Since you are growing an eating onion, you may just want to yank them. If you are interested to see if the mutation is permanent, you can bag the blossoms since onions don't need insect pollination to produce seed.
Remy

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Here is a walking tree that I heard about some time ago.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...cZEJAg&cad=rja



The world is full of strange stuff.

Worth

And, a mirror will help one see more of it.

[RinTinTin]

That link to Google images makes me want to bag/save any sports I may get in the future.
I can see a future in ornamental onions as an addition to flower gardens.

[Medbury Gardens]

i wont yank it just yet remy as i noticed today that on one of the ends of those long flower stems is what looks like a bulblet coming through like a tree onionso it may not have a flower at all.

Last season within the same seed line, there was one onion that had two large bulblets on the flower head,i planted them just before the winter of which now both at this stage have normal flowers

I thought that onions did actually need insect pollination to produce seed,so want are they, wind pollinated??or
self-pollinated??

[remy]

Originally Posted by Medbury Gardens

i wont yank it just yet remy as i noticed today that on one of the ends of those long flower stems is what looks like a bulblet coming through like a tree onionso it may not have a flower at all.

Last season within the same seed line, there was one onion that had two large bulblets on the flower head,i planted them just before the winter of which now both at this stage have normal flowers

I thought that onions did actually need insect pollination to produce seed,so want are they, wind pollinated??or
self-pollinated??

Sorry for the confusion on my part. I was in a hurry while baking my cookies and thinking that onions have perfect flowers and they do, but both parts do not work at the same time so they do need insect pollination. So you would still bag those blooms to isolate, but remove the bag in the mornings while in bloom to do the small paint brush/q-tip hand pollination between your two odd plants. This is bit of a pain. Of course if they are making bulbets, the point is moot.
Remy

[Medbury Gardens]

Well the good news is its not forming flowers so i don't need to worry about cross pollination but is growing bulblets instead

[remy]

Wow, that really is looking funky!
Remy

[Medbury Gardens]

Originally Posted by remy

Wow, that really is looking funky!
Remy

It is remy isnt it ,i'm going to let them get bigger and then have a try at growing them,who knows,could be a whole new variety of a tree onion type in the making here.

[David Marek]

First thing that popped into my mind:

Onion phytoplasma
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse...imgnum=5365849

Those sure do look cool, though. And yours don't look quite as messed up as most of the images on google.

Of note: I have some allium schubertii, and although the ball gets almost 12 inches in diameter, the entire stem only gets about 18" tall. Come to think of it, I saved some seed from them. I don't know if it's any good, but if anyone wants some, let me know.

[Medbury Gardens]

Thanks David ,looks a bit the same doesn't it.

[Medbury Gardens]

Progress so far with a mutant California red onion is its not only forming bulblets but also flowers on the same flower head,but the good news is the flowers look to be sterile because i recon they dont look any where near like a normal California red onion flower ive been a seed grower of this variety for over 20 years and this is the first time ive seen anything like it.

Plan is to grow on the bulblets

[David Marek]

Neat. As long as you can eat them at some point .

The nursery trade gets interesting cultivars out of witches' brooms (columnar, weeping trees, etc).
Other interesting insight:
http://www.oglevee.com/Articles/Prod...o/history.html

[Medbury Gardens]

That is an interesting link David,ive replanted those small bulblets so i'll update this thread on how they go.

[Medbury Gardens]

All the bulblets are now up which didn't take long,its great to see that they so vigorous.

[Medbury Gardens]

An update on how the mutant California Red onions bulblets now that they are in to the following season.
They came through the winter well and at this stage half have grown a flower stem while the rest are growing into a full size onions


What's interesting is all the flower heads are doing the same again and only growing bulblets with no flowers.


So plan now is to let the bulblets fully grow out,then for the third generation i'll do a Autumn sowing and also plant some in spring to see what differences show up,as well as the onions that haven't sent up a flower head this season will be stored over winter and replanted to see if they can grow bulblets with out flowering.