Does anyone have experience with potato (multiplier) onions?
Wikipedia says that they are not commercially grown.
That is probably not a reason to avoid them as a garden crop.
Steve
I've attempted them several times, with limited success. There used to be yellow, red, and white varieties sold in old seed catalogs (I remember seeing some in the early 70's) but they were gradually replaced by larger seed or set onions, and only yellow multipliers are available now. They were too tender for my climate, and I lost so many to winter kill that I was just replacing what I planted (much the same situation as Elephant garlic). I gave up on them after several seasons, and sent my remaining stock to someone further South.
I also had some smaller shallot-like yellow onions (given to me by a Hmong gardener) and small purplish-red onions which appeared as a seedling in my walking onions. Both of those were hardier, and Fall planted, produced nests of 6-10 onions (or more) 1-1.5" wide the following year. They both had a good return, but due to their small size, were of limited use. They were planted along with my garlic... and when I lost my entire garlic collection one year due to last-minute loss of the planting site, the onions were lost as well. The garlic was replaceable... unfortunately, the onions were not.
There was renewed interest in potato onions a few years ago, when Utah breeder Kelly Winterton introduced his Green Mountain multipliers. They were larger than any multiplier presently available; he even offered them through SSE briefly. I don't know what happened, but Kelly no longer offers stock, and their popularity seems to have waned. I've been searching for Green Mountain for several years; a few places offer seed (which produces variable offspring) but no one offers bulb stock. Seed, when available, still sells out quickly. Before my onions were lost, I had originally intended to cross-breed them with Green Mountain, in hope of a larger but still hardy onion... but I would still do a large trial, if I could get my hands on seed.
I do still grow 2 small white-bulbed walking onions, which divide at the base to produce large clusters of tiny white onions. Those onions, if divided & Fall planted, produce 2-4 1.5" bulbs the following season (I've yet to experiment with the tiny 1/4" topset bulbils). I also grow a couple pearl onion cultivars (A. ampeloprasum) which are like a miniature Elephant garlic. They form clusters of tiny pearl-sized bulbils below the main bulb... those "pearls", Fall planted, each produce a white 1" bulb & another cluster of bulbils the following year. Last Fall, we divided the clumps & did our first large-scale planting of those, I'm hopeful we will finally have enough to try cooking with.
