What it is
Egyptian Walking Onion (Allium ×proliferum) is in the Amaryllidaceae (Amaryllis) family. A plant-it-once onion that replants itself by toppling over and rooting its top bulbils — the ultimate set-and-forget allium.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it low once established, and give it well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.0. Space plants about 8–12 in apart. Expect roughly Year-round greens; bulbs in 2nd year. Hardy perennial.
How it's used
Egyptian Walking Onion is used: green onion tops, small bulbs.
🔎 How to identify it
- Hollow blue-green tubular leaves like a green onion
- Clusters of tiny bulbils form on top of the stalk
- Stalk bends and 'walks' the bulbils to new ground
Edibility
How to grow & propagate egyptian walking onion
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate egyptian walking onion
The onion family is grown three ways: from seed, from little bulbs called sets, or — for garlic and shallots — by breaking apart a bulb and planting the individual cloves. Garlic and perennial onions are the easiest of all: plant a clove in fall, harvest a whole head the next summer, and save your biggest heads to replant. You never have to buy it again.
Growing egyptian walking onion in Texas
Give it full sun and well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly year-round greens; bulbs in 2nd year before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: whole plant.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.