Hello everyone,

I got some topset onions about a year ago from a nice person who advertised them on gardenweb. As soon as I got them (around June), I planted both the stems and bulbil in the ground and waited.

Here is the life cycle of these onions so far:

1) Summer 1: bulbils and stems don't do much for most of the summer, sending up some fresh leaves (stems?), but they don't get very big.

2) Fall 1: The bulbils I planted continue to grow leaves; they are about as big as a very thin bunching onion, but not really big enough to be worth harvesting. The stems I planted have new leaves: the old cut-off stem dried up and died, and a new stem started growing on the side of that.

3) Winter 1: They grow a bit more, and sort of just go dormant until spring, but IIRC they stay green.

4) Spring 2: The stems start to get bigger, becoming really big by the end of March. They start to make bulbils in April. Then the bulbils (while still on the plant) grow shoots which form more tiny bulbils, which begin to have their own tiny shoots.

Yesterday: I harvest some. As most people who have grown these have found, the large stem with the topsets are not really edible being very very woody. HOWEVER, and this surprised me, I found that over the past month or so a new, tender stem with tender leaves has grown off the side of each and every one of the big top-setting stems. They divided at the stem like multiplier onions! These new stems/plants are like very big bunching onions or leeks, and they are tender enough for cooking, with good strong flavor.

I also harvested the bulbils, which themselves in some cases were like thin bunching onions themselves, with long tender-looking stems. I planted most of them in the ground. Some of these were first-stage bulbils, and some were the smaller ones above that first stage (which I cut off and planted separately). These things are complicated!

So I was wondering, considering that they divide at the stems, and the bulbils produce new tendrils with smaller bulbils instead of making firm hard tiny onion bulbs, can anyone hazard a guess as to exactly what kind of top setting onion this is? I am thinking they are either catawissa or heritage sweet.

Also, when I harvested the new side-onions that split off from the woody stem, I left the thick stems in the ground, roots intact (I cut them off in the soil as low as I could). Can I expect these to split and grow in the fall? Will bulbils from both the lower and upper stages grow when separated and planted?

These things are great, I love having them in my garden.