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Potato onion harvest and breeding

 
Posts: 26
Location: Northern Vermont
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I started seeds of Andy’s Green Mountain Multiplier Onion as breeding material derived from Kelly Winterton’s perennial potato onions,

After a few setbacks, I've got 7 bulbs with a few small and this giant one.

I am hoping to get some of them to clone and a few to produce more seed next season. They were fine to overwinter in the ground here in zone 4b.
20260911_100500.jpg
giant onion from seed
20260911_100553.jpg
green mountain multipler onions
 
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Posts: 8339
Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
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I'm eager to try and start some potato onions. I'm still rather green to growing alliums so starting from seed so far has not been a great success for me. I can grow onions from sets so far, maybe next year I will have some better luck.

Did you have any observations/tips for how you grew these onions? Anything to look out for?
 
pollinator
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Location: Colrain, MA, USA (Dfb - USDA zone 5a - ~1,000' elev.)
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Please see this site dedicated to potato onions, and containing progress notes on breeding:
https://plantal.net/

 
Posts: 12
Location: Zone 4b Northwest Wisconsin
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I grew Andy's Green Mountain Multiplier Onions from seed this year. I purchased the seed here.
https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/andys-green-mountain-multiplier-onion

My expectations were far exceeded. I can't wait to see what happens next year. I produced enough to plant a few this fall. Some of the same in spring and see how well many of them store over winter.

This is my total crop below taken this morning.
2026_AndysGMMO_fromseed_EFNseed.jpeg
harvest of multipier onions grown from seed
 
Russell Apotheker
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Location: Northern Vermont
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Sonny Root wrote:I grew Andy's Green Mountain Multiplier Onions from seed this year. I purchased the seed here.
https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/andys-green-mountain-multiplier-onion

My expectations were far exceeded. I can't wait to see what happens next year. I produced enough to plant a few this fall. Some of the same in spring and see how well many of them store over winter.

This is my total crop below taken this morning.



Nice haul and cool variation! As far as I know, if you overwinter in the ground they are much more likely to flower and produce seed. I've stored and planted back out in the spring too, then they tend to not flower and just divide.
 
Sonny Root
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Location: Zone 4b Northwest Wisconsin
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Russell Apotheker wrote:Nice haul and cool variation! As far as I know, if you overwinter in the ground they are much more likely to flower and produce seed. I've stored and planted back out in the spring too, then they tend to not flower and just divide.



I can hardly wait to find out next year. What surprised me the most is everything I read about growing them from seed said I would end up with one large one that will multiply next year. I only ended up with 3 singles, lots of doubles and triples and even a quintuple!
 
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