I am very excited that my Egyptian Walking Onions have bulbils!
Here is an article by permies member, Joseph Lofthouse:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/egyptian-walking-onions
Highlights from the article:
They grow under the snow during the winter and are ready for harvest about 3 weeks after our winter snow cover melts. My father calls them forever onions because they continue to produce food for my family until covered with snow in the fall. ...
Walking onions are a hardy perennial. In my climate they can be planted or harvested any time of year except when the ground is frozen. If pulled, the roots and a small piece of bulb may be replanted. They'll grow a new plant. They may be propagated by planting the bulbils that form on top of the flower stalk, or by digging and dividing the mother clump. There are a few weeks after the flower stalk forms in which the stem becomes hard and undesirable. New bulbs form beside the flower stalk producing tender bulbs later in the season.
I typically keep a perennial mother clump to generate bulbils that I harvest and store in a dry area. I then replant the bulbils every few weeks as an annual to grow successive crops of green onions for market and to feed my family. ...
Conclusion
Egyptian walking onions are a wonderful plant in the home garden because they can provide great onion taste any time of year that the ground isn't frozen. Even though they are grown as clones, I suspect that the creation of new clones may be within the skill set of the average
landrace gardener. This is part of the reason why I believe that landrace
gardening is a path towards food security through
common sense and traditional methods.
Here are some other tips from this
thread:
https://permies.com/t/68920/Walking-onions
Eric Grenier says: The bulbuls are meant to stay attached to the mother plant to ensure reseeding. The mother (large onion) plant will fight and win against any weed/ grass. Im going to try this next year as I will be on my third year on some of my plants
Let the bulbils get as big as they can and let them reseed or separate them and and turn 11 plants into 110 aprox next year.
let those walking onions grow up and lean down into your new bed. Work that bed with a pitch fork or broad fork and add mulch after putting a little soil on the bent over plant and keep it attached to its mother. Nature will do the rest.
Dylan Mulder says: Here's a tip for walking onions,
If you cut the flowering stalk, or rather, the 'bulbil bearing' stalk before it can make bulbils it will sink its energy into making larger bulbs instead. Doing this, I've gotten them to the size of a large shallot.