Potato Onions bolting or shallots in disguise?

[Shadylane]

I bought these potato onions off fleabay last year and thought um - they look rather like shallots and wondered if you can tell the difference. Anyway a couple of them have sent out seed heads, but I was under the impression that this was very rare. I'm now thinking that I've been had and these are just shallots Anyone shed any light?

[WendyC]

I'd never heard of them so just done a bit of gurgling. They do grow like shallots but to me, who knows nothing about them, the bulbs of the potato onion look more rounded than shallots.

[Shadylane]

Well I looked at my account and the seller I got them from is still selling them along with walking onions and the like and has v good feedback so maybe they're legit. Will have to see how well they produce. So far they don't look like they're going to be that prolific.

[WendyC]

This was quite interesting:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...hl=en_US&pli=1

[Shadylane]

Ah yes funny I was looking at that yesterday.

[Sustainableveg]

I spent about £50 quid on "potato onions" on ebay from a seller in scotland. A pound each basically. I sound like a mug, I know, but the variety has been extinct in this country and you cant get it sent over from the states (for legal reasons) where it is still popular. They are meant to divide like shallots, they very very rarely flower, the bigger ones are about 2 inches in size and they taste more oniony than shallots.

All the white ones I bought flowered this spring. About a fifth didn't even divide, about a quarter divided into only two. The red ones were much better, they all bolted but the reds divided, some even up to ten times.

If I was feeling friendly then I would think the vendor did not understand what he was selling. If I was feeling unfriendly then I have been done by a rip off merchant. The only reason I haven't complained is that there have been some really interesting behaviours and characteristics to some of the plants. For example one divided into three really nice and big onions even at this stage of the season. If the bolting hasn't ruined their eating then there may be something to salvage here. I may learn a thing or two about the lifecycle of what is very probably the common or garden onion.

Let this be a lesson to everyone who buys rare stuff on ebay.

[Shadylane]

Sounds like the same seller I got them from. He's still selling them though, along with walking onions which makes me wonder. Think I'll wait and see what they do, I'm growing shallots too so it will be interesting to compare the two.

[hamamelis]

Remember eBay feedback's given shortly after the parcel arrives, and you have no way of changing it or complaining after that. All the positive feedback for a seed/bulb seller means is that they're sending something that initially looks right fast and with decent packaging.

[Sustainableveg]

I've complained directly to ebay before and the vendor was taken down straight away. That was a cast iron case of fraud, this may be just a mistake. I'm going to wait and see what happens.

[Shadylane]

I dunno, he sells walking onions too and judging by his name I reckon he knows what he's doing. Will wait and see though and report back my results on here.

[Sustainableveg]

Nope, i've pulled them all up, the potato onion should not bolt like this. I think we should maintain this thread as a warning to others.

[Shadylane]

Mine haven't finished yet, but I'm almost certain they're shallots. I might email the seller when they're done and send him photos or something. Then I think I'll order some proper ones from poyntzfield in the autumn. Ah well, live and learn.

[Sustainableveg]

Not all of yours bolted then? Are they big shallots tho? Its said potato onions are like shallots just a bit bigger. POintzfield, you've done the same research as myself, I may do the same. I'm experimenting with japanese bunching onions, which perennialise very nicely, so I may abandon the potato onion line of enquiry.

[Shadylane]

No just two bolted, but they're quite small still, in fact I've grown shallots that were bigger. Last year I grew some spring onions which were of the type that multiplied. I got them all mixed up though so not sure if the bunch that I think are the multiplying kind actually are. Some have seed heads some(in the same clump) are much smaller and without seed heads, so I think they have multiplied, I just need to split them. Is this what Japanese bunching onions do?

[Sustainableveg]

My japanese bunching onions divide before they get too big but then I am constantly cutting them back to a cm above ground. I have seen some welsh onions (which are the same as jbo's) at Jekka's Herb Farm that were as big as leeks, and I'm not exaggerating. These were widely thinned out tho.