The Other ONIONS

Most gardens contain at least one row of onions, usually planted in the spring. Less common are fall-planted onions, including multiplying onions, shallots, and bulbing leeks, which offer several advantages over their spring counterparts.

Fall-planted onions need to go in the ground when few other garden chores demand to be done. They also tend to be more reliable and productive, less day-length sensitive, and less subject to pests and diseases than the more familiar onions of spring.

Other than garlic, these autumn onions mostly fall into the Allium cepa var. aggregatum group, although notable exceptions include bulbing leeks (A. ampeloprasum) and the perennial Rakkyo (A. chinense). By and large, all multiply primarily through the formation of new bulbs, called vegetative propagation. Most alliums don’t produce seed.

Identifying autumn onions can be confusing, because the same common name is often used to describe different plants. For instance, potato onions are sometimes called Egyptian onions, which are actually in the top-setting Proliferum group.

Here’s a rundown of various popular types:

• TOP SETTING MULTIPLYING ONIONS

Also known as Egyptian onions, tree