Saturday, March 3, 2012

Potato Onion

Growing potato onion for beginner is easy.
It does very well in mild weather.
Just push in the onion bulb into the soil and wait for some leaves to sprout.
We grew potato onion for the first time last year.
We did not pampered them at all.
Just some watering and leave them to grow on their own.
I think we planted them around April~May.
Perhaps can be planted earlier in March, but we usually don't have space in that month.
This is our note of potato onion growing stages.
We grew 3 bulbs of potato onion last year.
The leaves look like spring onions, tempting to cut.
Starting to form separate stalk for new bulbs formation.
More potato onion bulbs forming from a plant.
You can harvest a bulb and let others grow.
The plants will keep multiply bulbs.
Don't need to harvest all the plants, just harvest what you need and let them grow more for you.
Maybe this is a good onion for gardeners with limited space.
We wanted to let our potato onion plant to keep on growing.
But alas the summer weather here did not permit us.
So harvest them all I have to.
Most of the leaves have dried out, by the time we pull out the plants.
Another thing I have to learn and gain more experience of growing onion is the watering part.
How to control the amount water so we have some good number of skin layers.
So that the onions can be stored well.
From those 3 potato onion plants, we got more than 25 bulbs.
Have a nice weekend!
Happy Gardening!

20 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

My townhouse mates brought back some onions last year. I thought they were regular onion plants as that is what they looked like. They almost died (since they were taken from the south already growing and brought up to our cold weather). But I looked at them recently and they have started to divide. I'm thinking they are potato onions, but I won't really know until summer. I'll see if they die back like they ought to.

tina said...

Those are pretty neat looking!

Liz said...

I will search some of these out - I was really pleased with my shallots last year so these will be a good addition.

lena said...

is this the same as shallots? probably this is the only one that i know how to grow..LOL!

cikmanggis said...

petang nanti Cm nak tanam bawang di tempat tapak keledek yang kami gali semalam.Harap harap ianya membuahkan hasil sperti kebun bawang Diana ni hehe.

Norma Chang said...

Never heard of potato onions, they look like shallots though. Must google to learn more.

rainfield61 said...

I see.

I may get some points from you.

cookingvarieties said...

hi diana, i love to see your potato onions grow.. great harvest, well rewarding effort.. like they say, you have green fingers. have a nice day

Anonymous said...

I planted some of these yesterday (assuming they are what we call shallots..)

Sue Garrett said...

I've never come across potato onions here.

Sunray Gardens said...

Nice harvest. I will be interested to see how you cook these too.
Cher Sunray Gardens

Bee Girl said...

Thanks for the introduction to potato onions! I might have to try them out!!!

kumittyi said...

I'm very glad you were able to get the little and lovely onions,too.
I had planted 5 garlics in fall before, butI had withered all the leaves bulbs of garlic because of super dry. Your onions recalled me that.Oh Iwas So sad then.

kitsapFG said...

I grew these for many years but then ended up depleting my replacement seedbulb stock. I should reinvest in some as they certainly were easy and provide a nice reliable and self sustaining onion patch.

Lrong Lim said...

First time to hear about potato onion... thanks for posting about it...

takaeko said...

My onions are growing faster as temperature is warmer.

Eliza @ Appalachian Feet said...

We love potato onions! I'm planning to order a collection of perennial onion varieties from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

Malar said...

The onions seems to be doing very well in your garden! Potato onion is ne to me too!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Daphne~We have extreme hot summer and the location I planted them wasn't good for them growing in summer. Potato onion are small about the size of shallots. Hopefully the ones that your townhouse mates brought back are potato onions.

Tina~ I like to look at them when they have many clusters of bulb on one plants.

Liz~I think you can grow them in container as well. Since they don't have deep roots. Just have to make sure the soil not that dry.

Lena~Adik-beradik bawang kut. Not many info on the web.

Cikmanggis~Harap-harap hujung tahun ni nanti nampak banyak bawang kat tempat CM.

Norma~They look like shallots.But the skin colour is different from the golden shallot. A little bit lighter in colour.

Rainfield61~I don't really know much about this plant. But I do know that it is easy to grow.

Wan~I wish this onion can do well in tropics. Want to try planting them in the tropics next.

Anonymous/Mark?~You have shallots in the garden this year. Looking forward seeing it in your garden.

Sue~Potato onion is still rare here. Not every seeds company sell them. Very limited stock too.

Cher~I don't cook much now when my mother's staying with us at the moment. Getting pampered with mother's cooking;).

Bee Girl~Hope you like them.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Kumittyi~Hope your garlic will sprout again and some rain will help the grow.

KitsapFG~It easy to deplete oneself seedbulb stock. I often did that as well. Hope you can your hand some supply of potato onions.

Lrong~Just a note to remind me of this edible veggies.

Takaeko~That is certainly good growing much faster and you get fatter bulbs later.

Eliza~I am curious, what other perennial onion you usually plant as well?

Malar~The onions died earlier this year compared with last year since this year is hotter.