Hi all, here's an update on an experiment I tried last summer- onion maggots were going after my crop, so I pulled and dried the whole lot. I took one of five different kinds, put them in small pots in the shade, to see whether or not they would sprout into plants and divide. Four stayed put, but one, the Red Dutch shallot, did grow and produced five small bulbs.
I split out and replanted those in pots themselves, then transplanted them out to the garden in early winter. End result is that I septupled (? increased by 5 times) my onion production over the course of a year. Pic attached- several have already divided. So if I pull all of these plants Midsummer, then split apart the bulbs and replant, for a second mini growing, I'll have multiples of multiples of bulbs… I hope this makes sense!
For the other four varieties, in mid-summer I'll take a bulb from each and put them in the fridge for a few weeks, hopefully tricking them into thinking a season has passed.
On a sidenote, the E Toi onions have four scapes! Maybe I'll get seeds this year!