Overview

Discover the joy of growing your own sustainable food source with these remarkable walking onion plants. This offering includes three live starter plants, each nestled in a 4-inch pot, primed and ready for successful transplanting into your garden or containers. Often referred to as Egyptian Walking Onions or Top-Setting Onions, these unique perennials are celebrated for their distinctive growth habit and culinary versatility. Unlike typical onions, they produce bulblets at the top of their stalks, which eventually weigh down the stalk, causing it to ‘walk’ and root into new soil, creating a self-propagating cycle. These perennial onions are incredibly resilient, boasting exceptional cold hardiness and a vigorous, fast-growing nature that ensures a high yield with minimal effort. They are an ideal choice for gardeners looking for a low-maintenance yet productive addition to their edible landscape, providing fresh green onions and small bulbs throughout much of the year.

These fascinating plants offer a continuous harvest, making them a favorite among permaculture enthusiasts and home gardeners alike. Their ability to self-propagate means you’ll enjoy a perpetual supply of fresh, pungent greens and flavorful small bulbs for years to come. Whether you’re an experienced grower or just starting your gardening journey, these walking onion plants provide an engaging and rewarding experience, delivering both novelty and practicality to your culinary endeavors. Their robust nature and adaptability make them a standout choice for various climates and gardening styles.

Key Benefits

Embrace the numerous advantages of incorporating walking onion plants into your garden. These resilient and productive vegetables offer a range of benefits that make them a valuable and enjoyable addition to any edible landscape, ensuring a steady supply of fresh, flavorful greens and bulbs.

• Continuous Harvest: Unlike annual onions, these perennial onions provide a year-round supply of green tops and small bulbs, allowing for multiple harvests from a single planting. Their unique ‘walking’ propagation ensures a spreading patch of fresh onions.
• Exceptional Cold Hardiness: These plants are incredibly tough and can withstand freezing temperatures, making them suitable for a wide range of climates and ensuring survival through harsh winters. This resilience contributes to their status as truly cold hardy onions.
• Low Maintenance & Easy to Grow: Perfect for beginner gardeners, walking onions require minimal care once established. They are drought-tolerant and generally pest-resistant, thriving with little intervention. They are truly an example of easy to grow vegetables.
• Self-Propagating Nature: The bulblets produced at the top of the stalks will eventually bend to the ground and root, creating new plants. This natural propagation means your onion patch will expand and renew itself without needing replanting.
• Unique Culinary Flavor: Enjoy the distinct, robust flavor of these onions, which is a cross between a green onion and a shallot. Both the green tops and the small ground bulbs are delicious in salads, stir-fries, and various cooked dishes.
• Space-Saving & Versatile: Ideal for both in-ground gardens and container planting, their vertical growth habit makes efficient use of space. They can also be used as an attractive edible border plant.
• Educational & Engaging: Watching the plants ‘walk’ and propagate is a fascinating process, making them a great educational plant for children and a conversation starter in any garden.

Plant Care & Growing Tips

Caring for your walking onion plants is remarkably straightforward, making them an excellent choice for gardeners of all experience levels. These resilient perennial onions thrive with minimal intervention, allowing you to enjoy their continuous bounty with ease. When it comes to sunlight, walking onions prefer full sun, meaning at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day. While they can tolerate partial shade, their growth and bulb production will be optimized in sunnier locations. For indoor growing in containers, ensure they receive ample light from a south-facing window or under grow lights.

Watering should be consistent, especially during dry spells and when the plants are young. However, established plants are quite drought-tolerant. The key is to ensure the soil is well-drained to prevent root rot. Allow the top inch or two of soil to dry out between waterings. Regarding soil type, walking onion plants are not overly particular, but they perform best in fertile, well-draining soil with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Amending heavy clay soils with compost or sand can improve drainage. They are incredibly cold hardy, generally thriving in USDA Zones 3-9, making them one of the most cold hardy onions available. They can withstand severe winter temperatures and will re-emerge in spring.

Fertilization is typically not heavily required for these vigorous growers. If your soil is poor, a balanced organic fertilizer applied in early spring can boost growth. Avoid over-fertilizing, especially with high-nitrogen formulas, as this can lead to excessive foliage at the expense of bulb development. Common problems are rare, but watch out for onion thrips or rust, which can usually be managed with organic pest control methods or by ensuring good air circulation. These easy to grow vegetables are truly a set-it-and-forget-it type of plant, providing fresh greens season after season.

Size & Details

This offering includes a set of 3 walking onion plants, each cultivated in a 4-inch nursery pot. These are live starter plants, meaning they have an established root system and are ready for immediate transplanting into your garden beds or larger containers upon arrival. At the time of shipping, the plants typically stand between 4-8 inches tall, with healthy green foliage. Walking onions are known for their rapid growth; the green tops can reach heights of 18-36 inches, with the top-setting bulblets appearing in late spring to early summer. The bulblets themselves are typically pea-sized to marble-sized. These perennial onions are shipped in their pots with soil to minimize transplant shock and ensure they arrive in vibrant condition, ready to flourish in your garden. Expect to begin harvesting green tops within a few weeks of planting, with bulblet production commencing in the first growing season.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: How big do these walking onion plants get? A: The green tops of walking onion plants typically grow 18-36 inches tall. The bulblets that form at the top are usually pea to marble-sized, and the underground bulbs are small, ranging from 0.5 to 1 inch in diameter.
• Q: Are these an indoor or outdoor plant? How much sunlight do they need? A: Walking onion plants are primarily outdoor plants, thriving in full sun (6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily). While they can be grown in containers, they are best suited for outdoor garden beds where their ‘walking’ habit can be fully expressed.
• Q: Is this plant easy to care for? Is it good for beginners? A: Yes, these are remarkably easy to grow vegetables and are perfect for beginner gardeners. Once established, they require minimal care, are drought-tolerant, and generally pest-resistant, making them a very low-maintenance option.
• Q: What condition will the plants arrive in? Are they shipped in soil? A: Your walking onion plants will arrive as live starter plants, each in its own 4-inch nursery pot with soil. They are carefully packaged to ensure they reach you in healthy, vibrant condition, ready for planting.
• Q: Can I use the bulblets and green tops in cooking? A: Absolutely! Both the green tops and the small bulblets of these perennial onions are edible and have a delicious, pungent flavor. They can be used fresh in salads, stir-fries, soups, and any dish where you’d use green onions or shallots.
• Q: When is the best time to plant walking onion plants? A: The best time to plant walking onion plants is in early spring or fall. Fall planting allows them to establish roots before winter, leading to an early spring harvest. They are highly adaptable and will usually establish well if planted outside of extreme temperatures.
• Q: Will these cold hardy onions survive winter in my zone? A: Yes, walking onion plants are incredibly cold hardy, typically thriving in USDA Zones 3-9. They are known to withstand freezing temperatures and will go dormant in winter, re-emerging vigorously in the spring, making them truly cold hardy onions.