Where to Buy Potato Onion Starts
photo by tonia chi
This page is intended as a source page for acquiring potato onion starts. I will try to update as I get more information. If you know of any source not listed, please contact me. I don’t necessarily vouch for the sources in regards to either service or authenticity, I’m just listing claimed sources, so buyer beware. I also don’t know for sure how many kinds are really out there. The early literature I’ve looked into did not leave the impression that there were many varieties available in the past and I don’t recall mention of any red types. It has been common for purveyors to sell Shallots as Potato Onions and suppliers may not even know the difference, so be aware of that issue. I don’t have any financial interest in any of these except of course for the few I have to sell.
Potato Onions can be fall planted in milder areas with no especial care. They can also be fall planted in cold areas if they are hilled up with soil to cover, but the soil must be pulled away from the plants in the spring so that just the roots are buried and the bulb is sitting at ground level where it will be less prone to fungal diseases. Optionally, store until spring and plant then. Some may be lost to decay in storage, but they keep remarkably well in general. I planted some in September this year which had been held over from the previous summer’s crop, so they were over a year old. All of that time they were stored under unideal conditions including hanging in a often very hot trailer all summer long. Still, they do spoil and it isn’t uncommon to lose a number of them right after harvest and then a few here and there through the winter, so for spring planting you’d be better to order in the spring. I’m not sure who, if anyone, ships them in the spring.
I sometimes have a few Yellow Potato Onion sets to sell. I have a limited number in fall 2012 as starter kits of 20 or more bulbs, which is around right around 1/2 pound, for 7 bucks plus shipping. The bulbs are mostly small with a few larger ones. The large ones will make more small ones and small ones fewer large ones. If they are grown out the first year and all planted the second they will yield a sizable crop for a home producer, or quite a lot of seed for a larger planting. these are the Heirloom Yellow Potato Onions I’ve been growing for years, and from which Kelly Winterton has bred his new varieties. To buy, contact me here.
Seed saver’s exchange: Requires a membership to order starts and seeds from other members. The retail catalog does not have Potato Onions. various varieties are offered by members, though it is hard to say how many are actually different from each other.
Kelly Winterton: Unique new varieties that Kelly has grown from seed. All larger than the standard varieties and seem very promising. I highly recommend trying out the Green Mountain Multiplier. It did very well for me last year. Very limited quantities. Contact Kelly at kellys gar den at gm ail dot com
Fedco/moose tubers carries potato onions. Fedco is my favorite seed company when all things are considered, so check out the seed section as well. http://www.fedcoseeds.com/moose.htm
Southernexposure 8 oz of Yellow Potato Onions for about 12.00 bucks http://www.southernexposure.com
Maine Potato Lady Sometimes has Potato Onions for sale. https://www.mainepotatolady.com
http://www.Ebay.com There are usually some Potato Onion starts for sale on ebay. I’ve seen some that look like red shallots, so who knows what you’ll get. buyer beware.
Territorial Seed Company: If this link doesn’t work, try googling “territorial seed potato onions” . They are difficult to find on the site because they are listed as a seasonal product and only sold in the fall.
RELATED POSTS: Mr Winterton’s Remarkable Potato Onions, POTATO ONIONS!, The Historic Potato Onion
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Welcome to the Turkeysong blog. Turkeysong is a new-ish homestead in the mountains of coastal Northern California. This land is something like a canvas and a laboratory on which we live, create and experiment. I have spent many years studying and teaching primitive and basic skills and teach and write about such through paleotechnics. The primary intention of this blog is to provide practical information which has been run through the sieve of experience and to chronicle experiments in country living and basic technologies.
For more about me personally than people who don’t know me probably want to know, or a description lacking in adequately juicy details for those who do, look here.
- Sunrise winter solstice ’08
territorial seed has them too. Listed under multiplier onion. They have a range of shallots/garlic etc. so I *cross fingers* hope they know what they’re identifying.
All these sources are currently sold out except for territorial and I would rather not buy from them. Any other suggestions? Ebay had them but they were shipping from Canada–that will take too long. THanks!
Is your reluctance to buy from Territorial because they carry seminis/monsanto seed? That does seem to be the case and I think a good policy. I can send you starts for less anyway. My email is in the blog post. I might order some of those ones from Canada off ebay because they look different than mine. I contacted the seller who claims the picture is what you get, so I’m sort of hoping they are genetically different than mine.
what about egyptian walking onions for eating? I am interested in eating greens and the bulbs. thanks again for your response!
The walking onions are neat, but very small. The potato onion greens are nice. We eat them. Also, there is an old account of russian vegetable culture that says they lived largely on potato onion greens in the early part of the season and then harvested the bulbs later. They were also frequently grown as scallions for early markets in the old days because they were earlier than other onions due to their hardiness allowing overwintering. I’ve sometimes pulled some of the green onions off the side of the cluster letting the other ones grow and get bigger. It allegedly makes the remaining onions grow larger, which makes sense if you are thinning out entire bulbs and leaving the leaves on the remaining onions alone.
and yes my reluctance is because Territorial carries monsanto seed….
They do seem to carry a bunch of them. I think any seed company that isn’t intentionally avoiding them or carries only organic and/or heirloom seed is likely to end up with some. They have developed a lot of great varieties at Seminis (bought by monsanto) given their resources. I think it’s a good policy not to buy them. The folks at the Organic Seed Alliance are working on encouraging the development of superior new varieties adapted to organic practices as alternatives to the quality seed that outfits like Seminis produce and that growers want and can rely on. Some of the varieties are open pollinated or can be grown as open pollinated, but growers can’t save seed even for their own use because of patent laws. Most growers will probably keep buying the seed unless equivalent or superior varieties are developed and made widely available.
awesome.