"The bulblets make good "pearl" onions. The base plant is a satisfactory green onion when young, but there are lots of easier ways to produce green onions." If you throw the bulblet clusters on the ground, or just let them drop, they grow... it doesn't get much easier than that. ;-) They are hardy enough to become weeds. Mine literally come up through the last snows, and are my first fresh "veggie" of the year. Personally, I love the taste of the scallions; very mild when cooked. You can harvest them twice a year, in late Spring & again in early Autumn. Pnbrown, you & I had previously discussed these onions on another thread. I divided some of my plants this year & transplanted them individually into good soil. They did indeed form a moderately large onion at the base, up to 2" wide. They make good fresh onions now, when everything else is dead - thanks for the tip. There are actually heirloom cultivars of topsetting onions available. I am currently growing four of them: "Caudell Heirloom", "Comstock", "Knox Heirloom" and "Catawissa". The first three (all obtained through the Seed Savers Exchange) are now going into their third year, and are multiplying well. I again divided & replanted them in different locations last week, so I will see if my observations on their performance hold true next year... when I hope to have enough topsets to do a few trades. The "Knox" has proven to be far stronger than the others. The bulblets tend to be fewer in number, but much larger - many well over 1". The plants are also more vigorous, each plant dividing into 5-6 at the base (as opposed to 2-3 for the others). The flavor of the scallions has a little more bite than "Catawissa", which is still my main scallion.

100 or so years ago, the idea of planting the onions was to eat as many as possible while keeping a few for planting back. Even in my memory, cooking onions didn't have to be bulbs. If you could get by with having the green color, you used the tops. If the color were particular, you used the bottom half. I doubt if many gardeners then would ever have some massive tangles that we "collectors" create! Even then, I do think that every stand of walking onions should be cleared out every second or third year so that the soil can be enriched and bulbs started back again with proper spacing. Dave's Garden info is right and wrong. If it's just the actual Catawissa bulbs involved, it is correct to plant them back ASAP since they will not go into a long dormant stage. They will want to grow right away. The topset bulbils are quite the opposite in that they will store for a long time and can dry down to almost nothing and quickly come to life. This information DOES NOT apply to Heritage Sweet walking onions. Their topsets will not store very long. Only their largest seem to be able to last more than a few months and then rapidly go downhill from there. Martin

I want the same thing. Is there any other red onions that "walk" buy it from here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/20-ASSORTED-WALKING-ONION-BULBS-/171707985293?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

Thank you for the info and the link. My onions were everywhere at the old house. I put a bunch of them in large, shallow pots to bring to the new one. After two years of total neglect they are thriving. I only found one straggler in the ground around the pots. They got watered in summer every other day; in winter once a week. The tops get a bundle of bulblets then get leaves and all before dropping to the ground. I had the wild idea of deep frying the whole octopus-looking thing..... sort of an onion calimari. I do know that you're suppose too always leave the Mother Plant and eat/use the babies - either small or planted to grow larger.