Stabilizing the Walking Onion F1 Hybrid

[Raymondo]

I collected a few seeds from my walking onions just recently. They were growing right next to some potato onions which also flowered and set seed at the same time. Maybe some crossing? The walking onion seeds don’t look great but I’ll sow them and keep fingers crossed. Won’t be sowing until spring though (September here).

[reed]

Here are the Bloody Run onions or what ever they are, still don't know for sure but they taste like onions, actually they taste great, way better than my old top set onions.  The leaves are very flat but they are hollow, I think. Anyway I planted them with my old top set onions. All four of the larger bulbs are growing and I'v now found about twenty from the little bulbils. I should be able to collect more seeds from the wild patch this year assuming I time it right, it's about an hour's drive to the patch. I'm also of course hoping for some crossing here in the garden.

The picture isn't to scale the old ones are way bigger.

[Ferdzy]

Those look very interesting... I think I would have taken them for a daffodil at this stage.

[Richard Watson]

Is it quite a darker green too?

[reed]

The do look a lot like daffodils right now and they are lots darker color. I'm anxious to see how they grow.

[Richard Watson]

Well finally, after two years of no luck getting any further than the F2 ive got one third generation seedling popping up, hopefully more will show up.
It can stay in the tunnnlhouse till spring

[Richard Watson]

That seedling died, so that F3 is becoming quite elusive. Oh well, keep trying.

[Richard Watson]

They say that the walking onion is a cross between Walsh onion and a unknown variety, but if this was true wouldn't have I noticed some degree of variation?, my F2 & 3 were identical to the onion I first started off with which makes me think that they are a mutation only.
Ive just harvested my crop, very pleased with the size, I did take photos but I cant load them on here which is not the first thread this has happened. The largest onions are 10cm - 4in across, thinking I will plant these back in later to see what happens.
There are 4 plants with what looks like seed heads, so, can I finally get F4 seed?

[Richard Watson]

Well finally, after two years of no luck getting any further than the F2 ive got one third generation seedling popping up, hopefully more will show up.
It can stay in the tunnnlhouse till spring

Noticed my post about no luck getting any further than the F2, correction - haven't got past the F3

[Cathy A]

They say that the walking onion is a cross between Walsh onion and a unknown variety, but if this was true wouldn't have I noticed some degree of variation?, my F2 & 3 were identical to the onion I first started off with which makes me think that they are a mutation only.

I suspect that the original walking onion (not necessarily the one you are propagating) is very close to the original ancestral wild variety of onion. They are far more hardy than other types of onion I have tried. Perhaps that's due to some kind of hybrid vigor, but since the plants grow almost like weeds and readily propagate through bulbils and laugh at Zone 4 winters, they seem more like a wild onion than a hybrid.

The bulbs are pungent and tasty, but not large. I eat walking onion mostly as greens for a scallion replacement. I'd need a lot of plants to get a decent amount of bulbs.

[reed]

I posted about walking onion and garlic seeds on the other thread. I got lots of what look like seed from them this year, but they are just empty shells, there is nothing inside. I don't even have a guess why a plant would grow an empty seed shell or why some of them did that instead of making bulbils.

About those little wild onions I talked about, I have lots and lots of them now. Haven't bothered too much with the seeds but have probably a 1/2 pound of the little tops sets to eat and plant. I guess that comes to about a kg of bulbils, which is a lot considering how small they are.