Allium fistulosum var. caespitosum
Winter scallion
Common names: Winter onion, Leek onion
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 10 cm, rows 25 cm
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Sowing
- Mar, Apr, Aug, Sep
- Harvest
- Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −20 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Genmewcaugsa · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The winter scallion does not form a thick bulb, but dense clumps with tender, tubular green onion, and is winter-hardy over years. When February is still dormant, you can already get fresh greens for the kitchen.
Care instructions
Plant it once in well-drained soil and split the clumps every two to three years in spring. Cut the tubular leaves close to the ground as needed, it will regrow quickly. It needs little care and can survive even harsh frosts without protection.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMar–Apr, Aug–Sep
HarvestJan–Jun, Sep–Dec
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 8 °C, ideally 18 °C
- Days to sprout
- 10 to 21 days
- Light
- Needs darkness to sprout
- Sowing depth
- 1 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
humus-rich, well-drained, loamy, nutrient-rich
Give it loose, humus-rich and free-draining soil that stays evenly moist. The Welsh onion won't tolerate waterlogging. Loosen heavy clay soils beforehand with sand and ripe compost.
Alliums (onion, garlic, leek) are moderate feeders. A 4-year break guards against onion rot and leek moth. They make good neighbours for carrots.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar, Apr, Sep
The Welsh onion is undemanding: one portion of ripe compost when planting in spring is usually enough for the whole year. Deliberately avoid nitrogen-heavy feeding; too much of it promotes soft foliage at the expense of flavour and makes the clumps more susceptible to frost. On permanently lean soils, at most give a little ripe compost in autumn as soil care.
Overwintering
The Welsh onion stays in the ground and gets through winter in the lowlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland without protection; the foliage dies back after the first hard frost, and the daughter bulbs shoot again in spring. Provide a free-draining site without waterlogging (more dangerous than frost), and in severe frost wrap containers around the pot with horticultural fleece or hessian.
Propagation
Methods
- Division
- From seed
The simplest and most reliable method is dividing the clumps: in early autumn (mid-August to September), or alternatively in early spring before the buds break, lift the whole clump and separate it with a sharp spade or knife into several pieces, making sure each new clump has at least three shoots. Plant the pieces straight away in freshly loosened, well-drained soil. Repeat the division every two to four years, otherwise the clumps lose vigour and become too dense. For sowing, start indoors from February at room temperature, or sow directly outdoors from March/April once the soil has thawed and is no longer frozen. The seeds go in about 1 to 2 cm deep and are only lightly covered with soil; they germinate at a soil temperature of around 10 to 25 °C within one to three weeks. For an autumn harvest, sow in the bed from June to early August. The aim is for the young plants to be pencil-thick by the end of October. Note: plants raised from seed can vary more than clumps propagated vegetatively. The Welsh onion forms no detachable bulbils and no runners; propagation is practically only by dividing clumps and by sowing.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
carrot family (Apiaceae)
Umbellifers and alliums confuse each other's pests (carrot fly, onion fly).
For example CeleriacDillParsleyFlorence fennelCorianderCelery (Stalk Celery) and 20 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
rose family (Rosaceae)
You can plant garlic and chives under strawberries and roses; their scent repels aphids and other pests.
For example AppleRaspberryClimbing rosePearAroniaAlpine strawberry and 58 more species in the catalogue
Source: Bio-Gärtnerei Mixed Culture Practice
Rather not
legume family (Fabaceae)
particularly well establishedAllium species inhibit the nitrogen‑fixing rhizobia of legumes through their root exudates, which slows their growth.
For example Broad beanSnow peaWrinkled peaRunner beanLima beanchickpea and 33 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop‑rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
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