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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-184
Potato Onion
Allium cepa var aggregatum
Potato onion is an heirloom multiplier onion: planted once in fall, it's dug the next summer as a whole cluster of bulbs rather than a single onion. It shares its scientific name with the shallot but is a different crop - larger and sharper-flavored, and it stores for months where a shallot spoils quickly. The size of the bulb you plant decides the harvest: a small set grows into one or two big bulbs for the kitchen, while a large set multiplies into ten or more smaller bulbs for replanting. Like other onions it comes in day-length types tied to how many hours of summer daylight a place gets, so picking the wrong type means a bed of leaves and no bulbs at all.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–10
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 12–18 in
- Mature spread
- 6–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 6 in
- Root type
- Bulb
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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