White rot experiment

[bluebellParticipant]

Last few years I have had problems with white rot on my alliums. This year I thought I would try an expeiment as I noticed that Welsh onions did not appear to be struck down.
I planted some sets and sowed some seed of Welsh onions next to showings of spring onions. Min spots that I knew has suffered previous years and Alison some in poly tunnel.
All of the spring onion showings have suffered from white rot to some extent! Where not one of the Welsh onions has suffered.
I guess the question now is are they compatible to cross Welsh onions with regular onions? If so how do you ensure that they are the ones that are pollinating each other?

[charlesModerator]

Nice one Bluebell.
I do not know the answer, though I think that alliums cross pollinate a lot and sometimes the boundaries between different types, let alone varieties, are vague.
You can propagate Welsh onions by division?

[bluebellParticipant]

yes Charles welsh onions are normally propagated by division, however they don’t get very big – fine as spring onions but you would need a lot to cook with to be equivalent to one ordinary onion. Hence my thoughts about crossing a Welsh onion with a normal one to see if you could get something bigger that is still resistant to white rot. However having never crossed anything plant wise in my life I have no idea of how easy or difficult this may be.

[JezJezParticipant]

If you cross the welsh onions with normal onion, you might get a new plant. Just try it out.

[bluebellParticipant]

Jez jez
That is what I would like to do but I have no idea how to go about it?

[Author]

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