David Palnick

So, having harvested my TPOS crop last month, and putting them out to dry/cure outside on racks, the last couple days I've been paring away at all the dead stems and skins on the bunch. Of course, I'm seeing things now that I did not see during harvest. The most interesting item that popped up are these unique-looking ones which remind me ever so much of the Red Torpedo onions, originally called Cipolle de Tropea, named after the town (Tropea) in Italy where they originated.

The Tropea onions are not seen in supermarkets, but can be found at some farmers markets. They are sweet and delicious, but have a short storage life, usually 2-3 months. So they are considered a summertime/early fall delicacy. Imagine my surprise yesterday to find these in the piles. Out of the 500+ bulbs fromn my TPOS harvest this year, only two of these plants, both doubles, have showed up. I'm really hoping these 4 bulbs can survive until next spring to be planted out.

The first photo is a stock image of a bunch of Tropea onions. The second photo is of my 4 bulbs.

Here are the size and color ranges from several landraces (SESE, Dakota, Dutch Red, etc.) --

Here are some of the GMPO true seed results, note the color range:

Gregg Muller wrote:Can't believe your luck getting reds and purples, I've had nothing like that. And the size you guys are growing - Awesome!
Really cheffed that I had a bit of hand in helping the project along.

Greg,
The reds/purples are growing out more frequently from seed other than Green Mountain. I got a bunch of the GM from you, but I also got seed from Kelly Winterton for several other cultivars, including Dakota Landrace, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Landrace, and also Dutch Red Shallot. I also have grown out my own TPOS from another shallot called Pikant. These four throw out more reds than GMPO, however, that said, I still did get a pretty high proportion of reds from the GMPO seed I obtained from you.

Here is an example of my Pikant shallots -- the smaller ones are the normal size of that shallot, and the ones growing are from Pikant true seed:

Karl Trepka wrote:Hi David

Melbourne is about zone 6 .......what is your climate zone?

My location is zone 7. Northeastern USA.
The soil is very typical of those very near the Atlantic Ocean.
Basically, my property is on a gigantic glacial-deposited sand bar.

Pretty much beyond 6" to 8" of topsoil, its all sand down to the water table.
Excellent drainage to say the least.
However, the downside of any very well-drained soil is this:

When the rain comes, much of the nutrients in the soil get drained away.
So, all that mulch, manure, compost, amendments, that you added to your beds,
well, the rains just washes them downwards.
So, you must continuously and constantly be adding organic material to your beds.
However, alliums do thrive on well-drained soil, with lots of regular watering.

So, since this spring has been extremely wet (May had the most precipitation on record)
all of my alliums are just loving it and I'm on course for the biggest, heaviest crop ever.
But, I have to constantly be adding nutrient amendments to the beds to account for that.


At this point I'm growing 15 cultivars of perennial Alliums:

Garlic (4)
Multiplier Onions (6)
Perennial Leeks (2)
Shallots (2)
Perennial Bunching Onions (2)

and all look very healthy right now.
Cross my fingers, and here's hoping it all pans out.

Regards,
David

Dean,

When you say "If you Autumn plant the bulbs, they will probably all go to seed, which is not ideal I found. "
What exactly do you mean by "not ideal"?
Are the resulting bulbs smaller than if they are spring-planted?

Also, since the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere, when you autumn plant you get flowering/seeds, but not if you plant in spring?
Because that is pretty much the same thing here in the northern hemisphere. It seems like it should be the opposite.

Regards,
David

It seems there is a disconnect between the vocabulary.

"Permaculture Farming" is an oxymoron.

Permaculture is one thing.

Farming is quite another.

Only when people agree on this dichotomy will there be any agreement whatsoever.

The SESE (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange) Landrace is a strain developed by Kelly Winterton.

He purchased a bunch of regular potato onion bulbs from the SESE seed company a few years back, and grew them to produce topsets and true seed.
Last fall I purchased some of the seed from him, and grew out seedlings over the winter. Those were planted out in the beds this spring, along with the other cultivars I'm working with.

The SESE Landrace are vigorous, thick-stemmed, and growing well, with a variety of genetic (color) variation seen -- white, yellow, dark purple and light purple showing so far. With more genetic variability at this point than I'm seeing from the Green Mountain PO seeds.

As this is my first season growing these various multipliers, and seeing the genetic diversity available so far, I'm pretty excited about planting all the bulbs out this coming fall to see what results next spring.

You mentioned earlier that you've checked out Steve Edholm's Skill Cult website. You may have read there that Steve encountered mold problems (due to ambient humidity) in the process of drying/curing the Green Mountain PO he was growing. Where I'm located, we also tend to have increased levels of humidity during July/August, which is the drying/curing period for alliums around here. Like Kelly, I've built racks to facilitate air circulation to dry my garlic and onions. Have you developed any special techniques for reducing the chances of mold developing in your area?

In addition to the true seed plantings, I did plant several varieties from bulbs last fall:
Coral Mountain PO, Dakota Red PO, as well as Green Mountain PO.
The Dakota Reds are showing notably smaller than the Mountain types; but that's to be expected as the bulbs were smaller to begin with.
Both the Green Mountain and Coral Mountain cultivars are also forming topsets at this time, so I'm hoping for a crop of seeds this summer,
and hopefully the pollinators will help me out by cross-breeding cultivars and gifting me with some interesting genetically-diverse seeds.

Yes, I'm getting a bunch with the red/purple coloration, not just in the Green Mountain potato onions, but even more in the SESE Landrace potato onions.
Also, as you have noted earlier, there are a number of plants that have divided already, which I did not think was supposed to happen with sowing true seed.
There are several doubles and triples, a couple quads, and even one showing five divisions!
I wonder if those will show any different growth next year after they are planted this fall.

See photos below.