Onions and their related Allium allies are a staple vegetable of cuisine all around the world. Every culture that I am aware of values onions for the irreplaceable flavor they bring to food. This fact merits research and experimentation for all regions on how to grow onions, or a close approximation, for local production of this indispensable food item. I’ve experimented with quite a few Alliums here in Central Florida, with varying levels of success. This post will focus on a new (to me) onion variety that I’m very excited about, which I have named the “Florida Finley Onion”. The Florida Finley Onion offers some features that make it unique compared to other Alliums I have worked with. They are tasty and bulletproof to grow.
The history of Florida Finley Onion is one thing that makes me very enthusiastic about this variety. A customer of our nursery brought me bulbs of this onion and explained to me that it has been maintained by his family in Polk County, Central FL for at least 50 years. His grandparents raised this onion many decades ago, which I believe he has old photographs of. The oldest confirmed date it was grown is around 50 years ago but he suspects that its cultivation may go back much further in the family. In all those years, the family managed to never forget to plant and store the bulbs (I’ll get to that later), which makes this a very special piece of living history for our area. Not only does the onion carry a special history, but it also has a decades-long track record of succeeding in our unique and challenging climate conditions.
I wanted to honor the family that maintained this wonderful heirloom onion, and my friend told me he wanted to name it after his grandfather. This is the part of the story where I make a fool of myself. I wrote down the grandfather’s name, but subsequently lost the piece of paper. I then convinced myself that I remembered and that the grandfather was named “Winston”. I began selling and giving away divisions under the name of Winston. A year later I spoke with the donor again and he told me the grandfather he wanted to honor was named Edward Finley. Oops! If you have received these from me under the name Winston, kindly forgive me and start calling them Florida Finley. I want to honor the grandfather through the name plus this name gives us a fun and memorable alliteration.
This onion grows as a relatively short-statured plant, with tight clusters of stems. The onions multiply continually as the season progresses, ultimately resulting in a plant with as many as dozens of individuals in a cluster. As the heat of summer begins to arrive, the tops of the plants turn brown and they go dormant. At this stage, each stem forms a storage onion bulb that is stored for future planting or eating. The bulbs are then stored until Labor Day, when they are planted to start the cycle over again. From September and into mid-Spring, the plants grow vigorously and multiply. At this stage it has no interest in forming storage bulbs, indicating that there is some sort of climatic trigger for storage bulb formation that occurs in late spring.
There are several ways this plant can be enjoyed culinarily, offering something to eat for the whole year whether it is a growing or storage phase. The green leaves have a distinctive sweet taste and make a wonderful green onion/chive for topping all kinds of food. The white, blanched part of the stem that comes from below ground level is much like a store-bought green onion. It is mild, not pungent and tasty raw or cooked. The dry bulbs have dynamic flavor and go far in a dish despite their small size. In our opinion, they have a garlicky flavor that is really fantastic.
There are several things that make this variety great for home gardeners in Florida. Many Alliums are started by seed, which have a slow and tedious beginning. This requires a seedling nursery and purchasing of new seed every year. After that, there is the effort of transplanting the seedlings. The Florida Finley onion is direct-planted in the fall from bulbs, which have lots of energy stored up. This stored energy allows them to emerge from the ground vigorously, skipping the phase of slow growth that seed-grown onions have. The bulbs can be planted quickly and crudely. They are extremely easy to store away, so once you have the onion, you become your own bulb supplier year after year. The cultivation of this onion is very analogous to that of garlic. On top of this, it thrives in Florida conditions and is very easy to grow.
The botany of Alliums is quite complex and I am certainly not a botanist. This means that I’m not positive what this onion is and, for my purposes, it doesn’t especially matter. My best guess it that is in the Allium cepa var. aggregatum group, which is a subspecies that includes shallots and potato onions. A friend grows something that is very similar, which he calls an “Indian Shallot”. This indicates that there is probably a more tropically oriented class of this subspecies. More of this group would be worth growing and comparing to the Florida Finley. A few plants flowered last year. It would be very interesting to plant out seedlings and select further. One only needs to hit the genetic lottery one time with vegetatively propagated crops. In order to get vigorous, desirable seedling plants it may be necessary for it to be cross-pollinated by a different variety because Alliums are generally outcrossing plants that can suffer from inbreeding depression.
To plant, simply jab holes and place bulbs into the soil with the shoot side up and root side down. I have noticed that the deeper the bulbs are planted, the more highly desirable blanched stem is produced. This process simulates what is done with mounding soil up to leeks. When stems are hidden away from light, they remain white and tender. Bulbs can be planted as much as 3-4 inches deep and still have plenty of energy to emerge from the soil. Plants are quite compact; so they make a great intercrop in vegetable gardens amidst other crops. If planted on their own, I plant them in a roughly 8-inch grid. As soon as the plants have multiplied into a cluster they can be pulled up and divided. Trimming some of the greens away when dividing can help the divisions survive when they are planted. In one season I was able to divide four times and turn a handful of bulbs into hundreds. To dry down bulbs for summer storage, plants need to be pulled up in May when the tops have turned mostly brown. Rinse or brush soil off of the bulbs and then place in a well-ventilated, shaded location (such as a porch) for the bulbs to continue to dry down. Once they are dry and the tops flake off easily, place them in a box for storage. I stored them in a cardboard box inside of my air-conditioned house but they could probably be stored in non-temperature controlled conditions such as a garage. It is possible they could be left in the ground over the summer, but I’m taking my cues growing this one from the family that grew it for decades.
It is crucial that we preserve heirloom crop varieties, especially ones with special local adaptations. These kinds of crops are, presumably, quietly disappearing as the grandparents that cared about such things pass away and more plant-apathetic generations let them go. Locally adapted crops are essential for building a more localized food system. These old varieties offer us a special connection to the past as well as offer a possibility for a more sustainable future. I’m thrilled to take an old Polk County family treasure and make it more widely known.
