Dean Garraway

Karl have sent pm with pics/info so as not to hijack thread Cheers

Karl Trepka wrote:Hi David

That is a serious collection of onions!

I live near the coast too and the soil is smashed up seashells!..........PH 8.5! Luckily I have access to free horse poo and seaweed from the beach.....

The sea horses must be big'uns round your way. I really don't fertilise, as most of what I grow is in a forest garden set up. Whenever I pull out Kykuyu grass coming through the neighbours fence, I make weed soup, and I use it on smaller stuff that is in pots waiting to go into the garden. I grow a kind of tree kale called "thousand headed". Its about 1.3 mtrs high and climbing.

Hey Karl, I planted my Green Mountain seed about that time, and germination was great. Alliums that divide like garlic and the shallot family need the cold period to help the division, so if you are seed growing, it should be fine, but like you, some of my feb seed grown bulbs divided, when they normally would form one single bulb.None died however.  I am into only my third season growing them, so no expert.
Interesting that you found an Aussie strain of seed? (not green mountain related)  I know of a lady in Tassie that sells small bulbs, that would probably be cloned from the convict days.

Hi David.  The bulbs are bigger when they don't go to seed, regardless of what season you plant them in. Our mild Melbourne winters seem to trigger them into seed too readily.  Even a number of seed sown Autumn plants went to seed, leaving tiny half rotten bulbs. When I planted the bulbs in the following autumn, almost every one went to seed. The Spring planted bulbs however were all great, and full sized. When I refer to autumn, I am referring to Melbourne autumn (starts in March), but that shouldn't have anything to do with what hemisphere they are in. Our spring starts in September, but the characteristics of the seasons are the same as yours.

Hi Karl.  They are Allium Cepa Perutile. They are multiplying green onion.  They dont get much of a bulb. I got them from Damien from Mudcottage farm in NSW about 5 years ago.  Yes, I got the sees from Usefulseeds.com, from his first batch, and mine have since flowered and I have collected my own. If you Autumn plant the bulbs, they will probably all go to seed, which is not ideal I found.

]webpage[/url]

Karl Trepka wrote:Hi Dean

YAY! another grower from oz. those bulbs look a good size .....did you get the seeds from Useful seeds?

These everlasting onions you mentioned are they purplish and pretty small......they may be i'itoi onion?....very rare here in oz......pics please

cheers

Trish Dallas wrote:Dean, those are beautiful- I do notice, tho, that the biggest, healthiest one is sitting in a cuppa Joe. Does its caffeine intake affect ending bulb width?  

   Maybe you are onto something there lol. Next year I will try a beer mug.

I have been growing the Green Mountains for about 3 years in Melbourne too. I am in the Northern suburbs. Here are some good sized ones from the first planting from seed. I have recently been busy establishing an urban forest garden.  I also plan to grow out some seed from the everlasting onions that I have had growing from bulbs, that I managed to get half a dozen rare viable seeds from.  Will be interesting to see what I get.

]onions[/url]