Bulbous Vegetables: Onion, Garlic and Leek

By Roby Jose Ciju

This is a small book, which mainly deals with SIX bulb vegetables namely onion, garlic, shallots, leek, chives, and scallions and spring onions. All bulb vegetables are known for their characteristic pungent flavor due to the presence of a group of sulfur compounds in them. Growing practices, food uses and nutritional information of these bulb vegetables are explained in detail in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Agrihortico
• Release date: Mar 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393208280

Book preview

Bulbous Vegetables

Onion, Garlic, and Leek

Roby Jose Ciju

Copyright © 2019 AGRIHORTICO

All rights reserved

https://www.agrihortico.com

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all those who love nature and plants, who love healthy living and gardening, and also to the growers of all kinds of plants…

Bulbous Vegetables: An Introduction

Bulb vegetables are considered as one of the most nutritious vegetables and are very easy to grow in kitchen gardens and as greenhouse crops. All bulbous plants are either biennial or perennial in their growth habit and have their food stored in their modified underground stems called bulbs. In other words, a bulb is a sharp-pointed, short, modified underground stem which are covered by fleshy succulent leaves, either in continuous or in loose arrangement. This book mainly deals with growing practices and nutritional benefits of six types of bulb vegetables namely, onions, shallots, leeks, scallions and spring onions, chives and garlic. All these bulb vegetables are suitable for open-field growing, container gardening, organic farming and growing in hydroponics.

These bulb vegetables belong to the family Amaryllidaceae and genus Allium. Genus ‘Allium’ includes numerous plant species suitable for cultivation. Most of them need similar climatic and soil requirements for growth and bulb production. They are grown in tropics as winter vegetables. The growing requirements of all plants belonging to this group are more or less similar.

onion-466347_960_720.jpg

Figure 1: Bulb Vegetables

Onion: The Most Popular Bulb Vegetable

Onion is an important and the most popular bulb vegetable widely cultivated all across the globe for its bulbs. Onion bulb is a modified underground stem. Onion bulbs are known for its characteristic flavour and pungency which is due to the presence of a group of sulphur compounds, mainly allyl propyl disulphide.

Onion plants are bulbous, herbaceous, short plants which are either biennial or perennial in their growth habit. For vegetable purposes, onion plants are grown as annuals and bulbs are harvested in the first growing season itself. For seed production purposes, onion plants are grown as biennials/perennials. Onion is also known as bulb onion and common onion. Onion is believed to be originated in the region comprising of India, Afghanistan and the Soviet Republics.

onion-3540502_960_720.jpg

Figure 2: Onion Plants

Taxonomy: The taxonomic classification of onion is given below:

Plant Description: Onion plant is a short, herbaceous plant that grows to a height of 15 to 45 cm. Yellowish, bluish green, narrow, slender, cylindrical leaves are alternately arranged in a flattened, fan-shaped swathe. Leaves are fleshy and hollow, with one flattened side. The base of each leaf is a flattened, white sheath that grows out of a basal disc/stem plate which produces a set of fibrous roots. As the plant grows, leaf bases start storing food and gradually, the leaf bases begin to swell in size resulting in the formation of a bulb. The bulb is actually a set of compressed, fleshy storage leaves that envelop a central bud at the tip of the stem.

Popular varieties of onions are Common Onions (Allium cepa cv. cepa), Potato Onions (Allium cepa cv. Aggregatum) and Egyptian Onions (Allium cepa cv. proliferum). Potato onions are also known as Multiplier Onions, Small Onions, Shallots and Ever Ready Onions. Egyptian onions are also known as Tree Onions and Top Onions.

Major Varieties of Common Onions: Based on the colour of the bulb skin, there are three types of common onions. These are,

Red Onions: Onion bulbs are strongly pungent with a strong flavour. They are good for fresh, raw uses such as salads

Yellow Onions: These onion bulbs are moderately pungent with a moderate flavour. They turn dark brown colour when caramelised while cooking

White Onions: Bulbs of white onions are less pungent than that of other onion varieties. They turn golden colour when cooked and have sweet flavour when sautéed

Food Uses: Onions may be cooked in several ways; onions may be baked, boiled, grilled, fried, roasted, and sautéed. Onions are used for food purposes in various forms such as fresh onions, frozen onions, canned onions, caramelised onions, pickled onions, and chopped/sliced onions. Sliced/chopped fresh onions are used in salads, soups, curries, and many other food preparations. Chopped onions are also used to prepare onion chutney, onion soup, and creamed onions.

Raw onions may be dehydrated to make a number of processed products such as dehydrated kibbled onions, dehydrated sliced onions, dehydrated ring onions, dehydrated minced onions, dehydrated chopped onions, dehydrated granulated onions,