Raised
Bed Gardening in Arkansas
Subject: Scallions (Winter Onions)
If you want an onion that tastes great,
grows green tops all year long, makes little pearls for adding flavor and texture
to recipes, divides to generate even more the second season … look no
further. The Scallion does all of this
and more.
These little buds are probably the most
versatile and easy to grow bulb in the entire onion family. From the time they first put on a green top
after you plant them, they will continue to make several different types of
food source that grows all year.
The bulb in the ground never does get very
big. It is usually just a little bigger
in diameter than the green top. It may
get to about 1 ¼ inch in diameter and about 2 inches long. It has concentric rings like a regular onion,
but the texture is closer to that of garlic.
The ground bulb has a very thick skin and will divide into 2 to 4
sections every season. Where a normal
onion will have most of its’ weight made up of water, the scallion has a much
more oily liquid for a juice. As a
result, it has almost no parasites, it is super resistant to freeze, it holds
its’ moisture in very dry seasons … it will survive when everything else has
already withered and died.
The green top will rise up in a hollow tube
similar to a normal onion, but will get to about 4 feet tall. It can be used as a green onion or when it
gets bigger, it is very sturdy and can be used in the same manner that leeks
can be used (but it is a little tougher).
On the top of the green tube, a seed pod will grow (like a second year onion),
but the flower will actually grow into a tight little cluster of seed scallions
that can each get up to about the size of a nickel.These little seed scallions work very well for canning as pearl onions, in recipes needing a little onion, for dehydrating and long term storage, and they can each serve as a new plant if you are starting them somewhere else. With these seed scallions though, you will end up with pretty close to the same volume after dehydration, where I can put 20 large onions in a quart jar after dehydrating.
The Scallion likes a well-drained, loose, fertile
soil, but is a good starter plant in a newly established bed because it is so
hardy. It can be planted at any time of
the year, and as soon as it is able, it will shoot up the green top (even in
the middle of the winter). A very hard
freeze will take out the top, but it comes right back as soon as it gets a
chance. In late spring, it will make the
seed pod at the top and you can harvest the seed scallions by early summer. When the top yellows and dies down, the bulb
in the ground is already beginning to divide.
The bottom bulb can be harvested then as well, or you can let it divide
and a new top will start to grow on each of the new bulbs.
I usually will dig up a bed at the end of
the 2nd season and replant one of the bottom bulbs back in the place
of each cluster of bulbs. If the seed
bulbs fall to the ground, they will start to root and grow where-ever they
land, so you have to keep them picked as they grow to the size you want (or
when the green top dies down).
The flavor is mild and sweet with just a
little bite on both the seed scallion from the top, and from the bottom bulb. They can be used in any recipe calling for
onion, green onion, or dehydrated onion.
They hold their flavor well after dehydration where a regular onion will
have a more roasted onion flavor after dehydration. When dehydrating though, you may want to keep
the dehydrator in another room because the aroma of the onion gets pretty thick
and your eyes may start to sting after a bit.
All in all, I think these guys are
probably my favorite perennial garden plant.
They are so easy to grow, they produce well and always, they are pretty
much disease and pest free, and they give a good yield … and I really like
onions anyway J.
All
for now … Duane
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