Alliums

1
Alliums

• Alliums include onions, leeks, and garlic

2
Key topics

• Onion
• History
• Characteristics
• Types
• Starting onions
• Harvesting
• Leek
• Why grow?
• Blanching
• Garlic
• Folklore
• Softneck hardneck
• Harvest

3
Alliums

• Most alliums are grown for their bulbs
• What is a bulb?
• Swollen ________ modified for storage attached to
  a short ___________
• Stem is a small basal plate
• Why do alliums form bulbs?

4
Onion (Allium cepa, Cepa group)

• History
• Believed to have originated in _____ Asia
• Consumed wild onions long before farming
• Staple in _______ diet
• Less perishable easily transported
• Considered sacred by ancient _________

Likely origin
5
Onion Pungency

• Cell disruption (cutting) releases _________
  compounds rich in ________
• Makes your eyes water
• How can you prevent?
• Wear goggles, chill onion, or cut under water
• Do onions vary in pungency?
• Less pungent when grown in soils low in _____
• Low _________ soils of Vidalia area of Georgia
• _______ vary in pungency

6
Onions are biennial

• Bulb formation responds to ______ days and ______
  temperatures
• Different than other biennial vegetables
• Have short, ________ long day types
• Mature bulbs are formed late in the ____ full
  growing season
• Seed stalk formed second year

Onion seed stalks
7
Common onion group

• Common or _______ onion
• Includes _________ of bulb grown throughout the
  world
• Majority grown from seed produce _______ bulb
• Highly variable

8
Common onion group

• _________ onions
• _______ single bulb
• Mild, sweet flavor
• Bulb shaped like a _____ sphere
• Usually has a glossy _______ skin
• Examples Texas sweet onions Vidalia onions

9
What are Vidalia onions?

• Why are Vidalia onions sweet?
• Can you grow and sell Vidalia onions?

10
Aggregatum group

• Shallots
• Bulb smaller
• Typically propagated from ______ division
• Have a more _______, garlicky flavor than other
  onions

11
Starting onions from seed

• Takes a longer time period than the other methods
• ______ control is very important
• Onions seedlings not competitive against _______
• Seeds will only store for about a _______

12
Starting onions from transplants

• Growing method that most often produces ______
  onions for slicing
• Slower to develop
• Not commonly carried by many ______ ______

13
Starting onions from sets

• Tiny ______ grown from seed planted ________
  within rows
• Simplest method for the home gardener
• Sets should be about thediameter of a _______
• Set-grown onions may not keep as ________

14
Onions Harvesting

• Onions increase most rapidly in size toward the
  ______ of the growing season
• In ______ the leaves begin to die back from the
  tips and _______ ______

15
Onions Harvesting

• After tops have died
• ______ bulbs
• Spread bulbs on a dry surface and allow them to
  _________
• Once dry, remove all but an _____ of the tops
• If not done can result in neck rot

16
Leeks (Allium porrum)

• _____ emblem
• Differences from onion and garlic
• _______ in flavor
• Do not form a bulb
• Have a thick ______ stalk

17
Blanching leeks

• When stems are as thick as a ______, place soil
  or mulch around the ________ portion
• Why blanch leeks

18
Garlic (Allium sativum)

• Associated with protecting against evil
  _________ and vampires
• Why?
• Does contain useful compounds
• Diallyl sulphides help promote circulation
• _________ is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal that
  can help protect against colds and infections

Allicin
19
Two distinct subspecies

• ________ garlic
• Type sold in stores
• Hardneck garlic
• Reputed to have a deeper, more _______-bodied
  flavor than softneck garlic
• Produces _______ per acre than softneck

20
Hardneck garlic

• Hardneck requires more land and labor
• ______ ______ must be removed
• Hardneck garlic does not _______ as well as
  softneck

21
Garlic Harvesting

• Plants begin to dry down (yellow) from the ______
  leaf up and from the leaf tips _______, one leaf
  at a time
• Harvest when about ____ of the leaves are still
  green