Anybody with experience with "potato onions"?

[Cyclonemom]

Hi there,

I ordered and planted some potato onions last fall with my garlic and EWO's.

The garlic is up very nicely, and so are the EWO's. But there is not one spout from the potato onions. (about 2 dozen were planted)

I didn't dig around in the patch to see what became of the onion bulbs, but the top was not disturbed like it was dug into from the top, and they were planted in 6 inch high raised beds. . .. .

Are they slower to get started in the spring than those other fall planted items?

[dissimulo]

Ours come up at about the same time as garlic and grow about twice as fast thereafter.

[DryRun]

Potato onions are usually much slower to emerge than garlic. With a mid October planting in Zone 5, even with the warm winter and a good mulch of shredded leaves, the potato onions showed very little growth until the warmth in March, while garlic showed greens in November and held well all winter. If you didn't have the "zombie weather" in March of 5 consecutive days in the 70's & 80's, give them a bit.

After emergence, put down a bit of a high nitrogen fertilizer such as a lawn fertilizer or a good organic source of nitrogen and watch the potato onions take off.

[bbkaren]

I just ordered some Potato Onions (aka Multiplier Onions) from Territorial Seed and am anxious to try them!

My onions just don't seem to get very big, whether I grow them from sets or from seedlings, so...hoping for the best!

I had always been concerned about a sustainable source for onions since we love them so much so I've cast a wide net...OP seeds, multiplier onions, and Egyptian walking onions (from christieacres, of course!).

Here's some info on potato/multiplier onions - which I'd never heard of until a few weeks ago: http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/potato-onions/

[dissimulo]

I took this picture to illustrate why one should not plant after imbibing, but it can serve a dual purpose.

This is garlic and potato onions in February. Garlic is on the left and potato onions on the right. They both came up in November following an October planting and only grew a couple inches before picking up in February. The potato onions definitely grow more vigorously than garlic for us.

The potato onions are now about a foot tall, while garlic is about 8 inches.

[bbkaren]

haha awesome, Dis!

[Cyclonemom]

UPdate on the potato onions.

I have about 8-10 emerging now, after our 2 weeks of unseasonably warm weather. It's turned cold again now, so hopefully everything will slow down a bit. Garlic is approaching 10 inches tall!!

I'm picking up the rest of the ingredients for COF (complete organic fertilizer) from the feed store today or tomorrow when the chicks come in, so I'll mix up a batch and fertilize.

Once the wind stops blowing 40 miles an hour!!