Plant · P-365

Rakkyo

Allium chinense

Rakkyo is the Japanese pickling scallion behind rakkyozuke, grown for a crisp, strongly onion-flavored bulb that reaches full pickling size in its second or third year. Its growth cycle runs opposite to summer: green leaves grow from autumn through late spring, then die back as the bulb forms and finishes drying by early summer, so the plant is dormant through the hottest months and needs no summer water. Leaves, flowers and young seedpods are also edible, and reported yields in its home range run 15 to 20 tonnes per hectare at 60 to 90 days from planting to first harvest.