"Walk like an Egyptian" ....

Comments

  • pseabolt
    pseabolt Posts: 48 ✭✭✭

    That looks really cool! Have you grown these @silvertipgrizz ? I have a lot of hard red clay here, although I’m working to improve my garden dirt, I wonder how they would do here....

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    I have had these onions growing in my garden for over 20 years. They survive severe cold (-40) in the winters and heat (in the 90s) and drought in the summers. They don't seem to mind over-watering as much as other onions. I would make sure I loosened up that clay with some good compost and they should do well for you.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @pseabolt Mine too. I use returned round tubs emptied of their 'cattle minerals', fill with a soil/sand/manure mix, drain holes about 1/3 of the way up with a mesh of some sort to keep from loosing the soil mix with watering, and the height of the drain holes just high enough so the nutrients don't all drain out and I only have to water at most 2 times a week even in the Okla melting summers.

    I also built 2 X 4 and 2 X 8 beds. My onions will be in the beds, the maters and peppers and basil will remain in the tubs with the soil mix changed every 2 to 3 years as needed so I can keep growing my usual maters/peppers/basil without mass bug infestation. I do it this way, one, because the tubs brace my 16 ft cattle pannels which are the arches of support, and second because it is a flood plane and the builders by ordinance had to use 4,000 poudns of pressure/square inch to keep the soil from washing away, and to keep me from having a workable garden short of any ingenuity I might come up with. So I understand your frustration.

    And yes, I found them growing in my beds where I moved from and brought them here in a large planter. I only knew they were onions, and only think they might have been the walking onions. Busy re building my new garden and the onions all died from neglect I am sad to say so I will be buying from the company/link I posted.

    I will also be using an augar/hand augar to drill holes for okra I want to plant in the ground which like yours is clay and very hard but I am also collecting cardboard over this winter to start my 'no dig garden' to vastly improve my soil.

    Keep us posted if you try growing these onions and hopefully we will all have many walkers for a long time to come.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    I just couldn't resist posing this.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5422ncPW3_U

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2020

    I planted them last Summer. They never got heads/bulbs to walk but they look stronger today. According to the article this might be normal and I will see some bulbs walking this year😊

    They did get pretty shaded by a rouge pumpkin last year (I won’t be planting squash anywhere near that area again!) so maybe it was just lack of sun. I’m hoping they are still good and will do their thing this year.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The temptation was too much, so I ordered some of these onions. I will try some in shaded outside area that is available and some as houseplants. Hopefully the plants will survive and reproduce for me next year.

  • pseabolt
    pseabolt Posts: 48 ✭✭✭

    I ordered mine! Can’t wait to see what happens!!!

  • gennywu
    gennywu Posts: 96 ✭✭✭

    I love these onions. I use the little bulbs, growing from the stalks, like shallots. They keep coming back every year from the occasional stray baby bulb. I've also heard that they are more nutritious as they are closer to the original wild onions. And it is just fun to have these little Martians in the garden.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    We grew up calling them winter onions. Years later, as an adult, I had a coworker offer to give me some that she was thinning out. I left them alone to do their thing but my young daughter would pick a couple greens and eat them right out in the yard.

    When we moved I harvested some tops that weren't all the way mature hoping they would still be viable. I let them dry in the house for a week or so in order to break them apart. I threw a handful in one of my rock gardens, watered them and kinda forgot them. The chickens got in and took dirt baths and I saw the little bulbs on top of the ground. After that I made sure that the soil in that rock garden was damp to discourage the chickens. Still had a chicken issue. The furnace filters we use come with a plastic grid to keep them in place. I took one of those and threw it in the rock garden. That did stop the chickens. lol

    Last evening I noticed about 5 green tops sticking up about 1" to 1.5". Looks like they are going to make it.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Mine are doing okay. They were given to me. I was hoping they would spread more quickly, but I am happy with what they are doing to date.