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Old January 27, 2012   #31
lakelady
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I've never grown onions myself, but wow this was an interesting thread. Very neat looking onion plants!
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Old January 27, 2012   #32
Petronius_II
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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.
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Old January 28, 2012   #33
tessa
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ummmm....
can i help in any way????
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Old February 13, 2012   #34
Medbury Gardens
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Petronius_II View Post
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.

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
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Old February 13, 2012   #35
Petronius_II
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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?
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Old February 13, 2012   #36
Medbury Gardens
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I admire your rigorous devotion to the scientific method.Thanksi can see some commercial possibilities if i keep working with it

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?
Its been so long now with growing/saving my own seed from this line that ive forgoten where the seed line even came from in the frist place,but i would think its come from an old gardener who's given it to our group way back when we started up looking for old New Zealand grown heirlooms to save .

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?
I had thought of that because i also grow tree onions as well, but ive noticed that any flower that forms on those tend to have a flower that doesn't seem to have any stamens,so there for unable to cross with the California red,so time will tell what happens.
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Old August 18, 2012   #37
wmontanez
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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.
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Old August 18, 2012   #38
Medbury Gardens
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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

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Old August 18, 2012   #39
Medbury Gardens
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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.
It is fascinating Wendy.
This will be the third season coming up since first noticing the mutated flower head
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