Re: [gardeners] candy onions
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 23 Mar 1999 12:19:36 -0600
margaret lauterbach wrote:
> I finally succumbed to temptation this year and bought seeds for candy
> onions, I think from Park. Then a woman told me she grew them last year
> and they were terrific. AND they lasted through the winter in a bucket on
> her screened porch. She grew up in this area (sw Idaho), so knows what
> WallaWalla Sweet onions taste like (grown in WallaWalla, or two Wallas as
> some say), and if she was impressed with candy onions, they've got to be
> great. Then yesterday I talked with a MG friend who told me his cousin
> told him 5 years ago to stop growing Walla Walla sweets and grow candy. He
> gave him a bunch of pelletized seeds. Dick said he had grown candy onions
> from that cache of seeds for the past five years, and they really liked
> them. I said allium seeds were not supposed to be viable more than two
> years, max, but he told me he had given some of them to a mutual friend,
> and she got 100 % germination this year. I wonder whether pelletizing
> really has a significant effect on longevity of seeds. I'll bet Kay knows.
>
> He's going to give me some of the pelletized seeds Friday at the flower
> show. Yumm. Margaret
A full report on growth patterns and taste will be expected. I'm growing Texas
1015Y granos for the first time this year, planted from onion starts I got in
Texas. Never had much luck getting onions to bulb up so I'm crossing my
fingers. If those candy onions work we may see about some pelletized seed for
them. I'm getting to where I really like pelletized seed, I can actually see it
to plant.
George