Help identifying mystery onions

TwinCitiesPanda

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Pictures of the strawberries, please. They may be garden leftovers or they may be wild and inedible. DD's have a patch of those.
Lucky you with the onions! My wild onions are tough and UNusable.

I will snap a few photos in the coming weeks. They are just getting started (its still really early spring for us).
 

Ridgerunner

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That sounds odd, given that domestic onion stems & leaves are hollow, and domestic garlic leaves are flat.

Look it up yourself, don't take my word for it. But I agree with you. That always struck me as odd. I'd love for someone to confirm that I haven't lost my mind when I read that. I took mine from the Penn State site but I'd seen that before.

I'll add, when I read that years back I went to the garden to confirm it was backward. It is exactly opposite to the domestic garlic and onions I was growing.
 
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Pulsegleaner

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It think it basically boils down to the fact that our "wild" onions and garlic are neither the same species as nor the ancestors of domestic onions and garlic. If you were to get your hands on TRUE "wild garlic" (i.e. Allium tunacelli the actual ancestor of domestic garlic) I'd imagine it would have flat leaves as well. *

*please don't try, A. tunacelli is endangered.
 

flowerbug

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re strawberries, wild strawberries are edible, they may not get large berries but there isn't any problem with eating them if you can get them before the birds or other wildlife.
 

Pulsegleaner

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re strawberries, wild strawberries are edible, they may not get large berries but there isn't any problem with eating them if you can get them before the birds or other wildlife.
That's true. However, here in the US, the commonest "wild strawberry" you'll bump into is the Mock or Indian strawberry, Duchesnea indica. That IS edible, but utterly tasteless, so more or less pointless.

Incidentally, I have found that one way to get a heads up on the birds and other critters is to plant WHITE strawberries. The birds apparently go by color to determine ripeness, so they keep thinking the fruit isn't ripe and you can pick them at your leisure.
 

TwinCitiesPanda

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That's true. However, here in the US, the commonest "wild strawberry" you'll bump into is the Mock or Indian strawberry, Duchesnea indica. That IS edible, but utterly tasteless, so more or less pointless.

Incidentally, I have found that one way to get a heads up on the birds and other critters is to plant WHITE strawberries. The birds apparently go by color to determine ripeness, so they keep thinking the fruit isn't ripe and you can pick them at your leisure.

I’ve heard this! I bought some white ones last year but they died. I will be buying more in the future. I am also planting green and yellow tomatoes in addition to red varieties, as I heard they are less tempting to our little yard critters. I also have blueberries, blackberries, cherries, etc. so the strawberries won’t be the only crop to protect. I’m hoping if I’m growing enough they can take some and it won’t reduce yields too much. That or I’ll get drives if birds and get utterly skunked. Who knows?
 

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