Scientific Name: Allium fistulosum

Common Names: Welsh Onion 'Green Stem', Japanese Bunching Onion 'Green Stem', Bunching Onion 'Green Stem', Nebuka, Cibol

Family: Amaryllidaceae

Origin:

Despite their name Welsh Onions are not actually from Wales but instead hail from Eastern Asia.  The usage of Welsh in the common name for this vegetable is actually a corruption of the old German word Walsch which mean foreign.  Green Stem is an open-pollinated variety that originates from Siberia and Northern China.  You can collect the seed from this variety year after year and they'll grow true to type.

Culinary Uses:

The pale green hollow stems and a few centimetres of the darker green leaves can be harvested and eaten as a green onion, either raw in salads or cooked in stir fries, dumplings or miso soup.  Flavour is sweet and mild.  Shoots will be at their sweetest and best picked about 10 to 12 weeks after emerging from the soil.

Growing Tips:

This is a pest resistant, easy to grow and vigorous variety, highly recommended.  Welsh Onions will grow best in full sun but will also tolerate light shade.  Ensure your soil is free draining, grow Welsh Onions in raised garden beds if your soil is too compacted or heavy with clay.  When growing Welsh Onions you want lots of leafy shoot growth so dig lots of organic fertiliser, well-rotted manures, worm castings and/or compost through your vegetable beds prior to sowing.   Fertilise Welsh Onion plants monthly with an organic liquid-based fertiliser, worm juice or pelleted fertiliser.  Water regularly although not every day and mulch around plants well to retain moisture, keep their root systems cool and reduce competition from weeds.  You can increase the length of the lighter coloured base of your Welsh Onions by blanching them, you can do this by simply mounding mulch around the plants as they grow before the stems have a chance to turn a darker green.  The flowers of perennial onion varieties are great for attracting native bees and other beneficial insects to your garden.  Welsh Onions grow best with a soil pH between 6.5 and 7.5.  You can propagate Welsh Onions and create new clumps by breaking off side shoots from the main clump and planting them elsewhere in your garden. 

When To Sow:

In temperate and cooler regions of Australia sow Green Stem Welsh Onions from April to August.  In subtropical regions of Australia sow Green Stem Welsh Onions from April to June.

How To Sow:

Sow Green Stem Welsh Onion seeds 1cm deep, spacing or thinning plants to about 25cm apart to give them plenty of room to grow.

Germination Time:

Green Stem Welsh Onion seeds take between 7 and 11 days to germinate once sown.

Time To Harvest:

Green Stem Welsh Onion shoots will be ready to harvest 11 to 13 weeks after sowing the seeds, alternatively you can let the main shoot grow as a perennial and instead only harvest the side shoots when they are big enough.