FAMILY MATTERS IT'S ALL ALLIUMS

The onion is a veg plot staple but it has many edible cousins we can also grow. Emma Rawlings takes a look at the familiar alliums plus some unusual ones

- Emma Rawlings

One of our most popular vegetables is the onion, which belongs to a family of plants calledAmaryllidaceae, and within this family, it divides into about 57 genus, of which allium is one.

The allium then further divides into species and here we suddenly have a whole host of edibles and ornamentals that regularly appear on our veg plots or in our flower borders.

THE MOST FAMILIAR

ONION (Allium cepa)

No mistaking this one and a popular staple in our diet. The main part eaten is the large (or sometimes small) bulb at the base of the plant. You can grow them from seed or from sets. Onion sets are basically immature onion bulbs. It gives you a head start overgrowing from seed and seed-raised onions are often, but not always, slightly smaller than set-raised ones. Onion sets produce a decent-sized bulb and harvest but being in the second year they could, in theory, produce a flower which will mean the bulbs then won’t store so well. Most onion sets you buy are heat-treated to kill the embryo flower inside the bulb and so you can grow a decent-sized onion without the worry of it flowering. Onion sets are usually planted mid-March-mid April but you can also plant in autumn to overwinter. If sowing seeds, these can be sown in early spring direct or sown into cell trays first then planted out.

SHALLOT (Allium cepa Aggregatum Group)