We are now offering red Egyptian Walking Onion ground bulbs for a limited time only, and there is a very limited number of these available. They are currently dormant bulbs and ready for panting. Just plant them in your perennial garden or pot. Depth to plant: the soil should be about halfway up the bulb. Plant your bulbs now and they will produce topsets and ground divisions next summer. Size varies from about 1-2 inches long. As always, we send extra bulbs.

$10.00 for 3 bulbs
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Example of 10 red miniature clusters.

One of the clusters above broken into individual topsets.

You will receive a box similar to this.

Boxfulll of minitature red topsets = lots of plants for a great price! Although small, these miniature topset clusters will produce many Eygptian Walking Onion plants which will eventually mature into full size plants and produce topsets of their own. Each cluster averages about 20 tiny topsets. Some clusters are partial (in pieces) and do not form a complete round ball. More of these will be added to your order to make a "complete" cluster. You will receive well over 100 tiny topsets per order!

Break apart the clusters into individual topsets and plant 1-2" below the soil, or plant the whole cluster! Water and watch it grow!

Quarter is for size reference.

$19.99 for a small flat rate boxfull of red minitaure clusters
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Our "counted" topsets are avarage sized topsets as shown in the photo. If you have a small garden, pots on a balcony, or just want to give this plant a try, then 10 topsets is probably the right choice for you. Plant 2" deep and 6" to 12" apart.

$7.00 for 10 red topsets
0.70¢ per set
Sold Out

To plant a garden is to belive in tomorrow.

-Audrey Hepburn

25 Topsets: our best seller! Twenty-five will give you a decent sized Egyptian Walking Onion patch or row. Plant about 2" deep and 6" to 12" apart. Remember, the bulbs in the ground also divide, so eventually you will need to thin them out.

$15.00 for 25 red topsets
0.60¢ per set
Sold Out

Here they are! The long sought after White Topsets! Well, they're kind of greenish-white, but they call 'em white. White topsets are generally smaller than red topsets.

25 White Topsets: our best seller! Twenty-five will give you a decent sized Egyptian Walking Onion patch or row. Plant about 2" deep and 6" to 12" apart. Remember, the bulbs in the ground also divide, so eventually you will need to thin them out.

$15.00 for 25 red topsets
0.60¢ per set

Sold Out

Not sure which color to get? Try them both! Get 25 red topsets and 25 white topsets - a total of 50 topsets! White topsets are generally smaller than red topsets.

$30.00 for 25 red and 25 white topsets
0.60¢ per set

Sold Out

50 Topsets: now we're getting serious! This amount of topsets is for the onion lover! You will have a great supply of greens, bulbs, and topsets. You may want to consider dedicating a perennial garden just for these little babies! Plant 2" deep and 6" to 12" apart. You can plant them closer together, but you will have to thin them out sooner.

$25.00 for 50 red topsets
0.50¢ per set
Sold Out

Here they are! The long sought after White Topsets! Well, they're kind of greenish-white, but they call 'em white. White topsets are generally smaller than red topsets.

50 Topsets: now we're getting serious! This amount of topsets is for the onion lover! You will have a great supply of greens, bulbs, and topsets. You may want to consider dedicating a perennial garden just for these little babies! Plant 2" deep and 6" to 12" apart. You can plant them closer together, but you will have to thin them out sooner.

$25.00 for 50 white topsets
0.50¢ per set

Sold Out

Not sure which color to get? Try them both! Get 50 red topsets and 50 white topsets - a total of 100 topsets! White topsets are generally smaller than red topsets.

$50.00 for 50 red and 50 white topsets
0.50¢ per set

Sold Out

100 Topsets: for the expert gardener who loves their onions and wants to start out with a good sized Egyptian Walking Onion patch. Here's a visual: if you plant these at 1 foot apart, you would have a 10'x10' Egyptian Walking Onion garden.

$40.00 for 100 red topsets
0.40¢ per set

Sold Out

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow
to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch,
or an old acquaintance among the pines."

- Henry David Thoreau

200 Topsets: this is a lot of topsets, but maybe you want a lot of onions - a lifetime supply of them coming back every year for you and your family, neighbors, and friends! If you pant these in rows 6" apart, you will have four 25 foot rows of Egyptian Walking Onions.

$60.00 for 200 red topsets
0.30¢ per set

Not Available

500 Topsets: now I'm thinking about permaculturists and homesteaders....maybe even nurseries. This is our wholesale price. It's a good price for A LOT of plants!! Need more than 500 topsets? Just send me an email with your request: tracy@starsunmoon.com

$125.00 for 500 red topsets
0.25¢ per set

Not Available

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

- Emily Dickinson

JUMBO topsets are at least one inch or more in diameter. We only have a limited supply, so get them now before they are gone.

Quarter is for size reference.

$25.00 for 10 red jumbo topsets
Sold Out

Example shows 10 white miniature clusters, but we will send 15.

One of the clusters above broken into individual topsets.

Boxfull of minitature white topsets = lots of plants for a great price! Although small, these miniature topset clusters will produce many Eygptian Walking Onion plants which will eventually mature into full size plants and produce topsets of their own. Each cluster averages about 20 tiny topsets. Some clusters are partial (in pieces) and do not form a complete round ball. More of these will be added to your order to make a "complete" cluster. You will receive well over 100 tiny topsets per order!

Break apart the clusters into individual topsets and plant 1-2" below the soil, or plant the whole cluster! Water and watch it grow!

Quarter is for size reference.

$19.99 for a small flat rate boxfull of red minitaure clusters
Sold Out

Give the gift of onions! The Onion Sack is a miniature burlap sack with a drawstring. This cute little Onion Sack makes a perfect little gift bag for your Egyptian Walking Onion topsets! Each sack is stamped (it's actually hand painted with fabric ink) "EGYPTIAN WALKING ONIONS" in messy stencil font, and measures 4" x 6." One sack can hold up to 50 average sized Egyptian Walking Onion topsets.
*Does not come with topsets*
(ya gotta order those separately)
$7.00 for onion sack (onions not included)
Now shipping!

Topset Ordering Information

Please read this section before placing an order for Egyptian Walking Onion topsets.

Our Egyptian Walking Onion topsets are sold in batches of 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500.
We do not sell topsets by the pound.

Still not sure what to order?

I get asked the following question quite often: how many topsets should I order?

Well, it all depends on what you want to do with your onions, and how big of an "onion patch" you want. Most people are looking forward to eating the onions, and I'm talking about the bulbs in the ground. Therefore, you need to have enough bulbs so that you can harvest some to eat, and also leave some growing in the ground. The ones you leave in the ground will be your 'supply' bulbs. Your supply bulbs will divide in the ground and make more bulbs which you can eat and plant. In the summer you can harvest your onions to eat. In the fall you can dig up your supply bulbs, separate them, and replant them for onions to eat next year.

When you plant the onion bulbs that you plan to eat, give them enough space so the bulb has room to grow as big as it can. A plant every six inches is enough. The trick to getting the bulb to grow bigger is to cut off the topset stalk in the spring. The topset stalk appears during the 'candlestick' phase (see home page for more about this.) When you see it, just cut it off so that the plant does not start producing topsets. This will allow the plant to focus its energy on the bulb in the ground. This is the same process used for growing garlic. With a garlic plant, the scape is cut off in order to grow a bigger bulb of garlic cloves in the ground. If the scape is left to grow on the garlic plant, it will produce little bulbils (mini topsets) just like an Egyptian Walking Onion plant!

So now you may be thinking: but what if I want to grow the topsets? Well, you can let them grow on your 'supply' bulbs, not your 'eating' bulbs. Just let your supply bulbs grow as they will. They will divide in the ground and also produce topsets which you can eat, plant, or share with your neighbors! Remember, when you plant the topsets, they will not produce topsets of their own until the second season.

What is a topset?

An Egyptian Walking Onion "topset" is one of the little "bulblets" that grows in a cluster at the top of the plant. It is essentially a baby Egyptian Walking Onion plant. Below is a comparison of a cluster of topsets and just one topset.

Cluster of topsets

One topset

Topset size:

Topsets are marble sized. The majority of our topsets range from approximately 1/4" to 3/4" in diameter, however, some may be bigger and some may be smaller. Any order of Egyptian Walking Onion topsets may contain sets that fall in the extreme small or large end of this size range. Meaning, when you order 10 topsets, you may get "big" topsets that are 1" or more in diameter, and you may get "small" topsets that are 1/4" or less in diameter. We deal with thousands of topsets, so the sets you receive are the luck of the draw. However, we do try to send a fair range in size so that you don't receive all small or all large topsets. We strive to grow exceptional topsets that are nice and big. Our average topset size has gotten bigger over the years. We sell most of the smaller topsets as "balled and burlapped topset plants." As always, we do send extra topsets with every order.

An example of three average size Egyptian Walking Onion
topsets shown with a penny for size reference.

Topset shape and appearance:

The shape of an Egyptian Walking Onion topset varies. Some topsets are round, and some are enlongated. Some are even flat! Most all topsets will have a little sprout or roots emerging. Some topsets may have greens up to 3 or 4 inches long. Topset colors range from green to reddish/purple. The outer layers of your topsets will be dry. This is normal and occurs during the curing process. Dry outer layers protect the topsets from excessive moisture loss and entrance of pathological organisms such as mold and bacteria.

What you will receive:

When an order is placed, the Egyptian Walking Onion topsets are carefully picked by hand and counted. We always throw in a few extra for positive onion energy! The topsets are placed into a small paper bag (lunch bag), which is then put into a small US Priority mail box. We do not send any planting instructions or other printed material with your order, except maybe a business card. We are striving to be a "green" company so we try to conserve when possible. Since we post general planting directions on our website, we can save paper and ink by not printing and sending them. Thank you for your understanding.

An example of an order of Egyptian Walking Onion topsets.

This is an example of what you will receive
when you place an order of 10 Egyptian Walking Onion topsets:
10 topsets (plus extras not shown), a small paper bag, and a box.

What to do with your topsets when they arrive:

Onion sets do not store very well. They are not like a seed with a hard outer coating that protects them from extreme environmental conditions. Egyptian Walking Onion topsets are in fact miniature plants. They are very vulnerable and can dry out, mold, or even die if not cared for properly. We continue to sell our Egyptian Walking Onion topsets through the winter, long after they have been harvested. This is because we cure them before putting them in storage. We store them in a cold, dark place all winter at whatever the outdoor temperature happens to be. The colder, the better! They can remain viable for over 6 months this way, but they would do far better if they were planted in the ground. We recommend that you plant your Egyptian Walking Onion topsets as soon as possible after you receive them. If the ground is frozen or covered with snow when you get your topsets, just plant them in a pot of soil and keep them inside. Keep the pot in a cool, dark place if you don't want them to grow too much. Put the pot in a warm, sunny place if you want them to grow like crazy. Do not over water them. Once per week is good. Make sure the water drains through the soil well. There are more planting instructions on the home page.
You may receive freshly picked topsets which have not been cured. They may have greens up to 3 or 4 inches long. You can plant these topsets immediately or you can cure them by letting them dry in the shade where there is plenty of airflow. When they are fully cured, the outer layer will have hardened and the greens will have dried to a light brown color. Store them in a cool, dry, dark place until you are ready to plant them. A refrigerator actually doesn't work that well for storing long term because there is not enough air flow. However, you can store them in a refrigerator for a little while as long as they are in an open container, a mesh bag, or an open paper bag. Never put them in plastic bag or a sealed container because they will mold.

Topset Viability:

Our topsets are harvested in August. After they are harvested, we cure them in our onion shed. They are spread out on fine wire mesh racks so there is plenty of air flow around them. It is also fairly dark. The topsets may have green leaves and even roots when we harvest them, but as they cure in the shed, the leaves and roots dry out and shrivel up. The outer layers of onion skin that are wraped around the topsets become dry and crispy. These layers are called "tunics" and serve to protect the topset from injury, infection, and dehydration. After about two or three weeks, the topsets are "cured" and induced into a dormant state. They will remain dormant until they are planted in the ground. As the weeks and months go by for the topsets in storage, the outer layers will continue to dry and become crispy. The outermost layers will eventually fall off as new layers underneath crisp up. This process is similar for all tunicate bulbs. The dry, papery outer layers lead some people to believe that their topsets may not be viable because they think the topsets may have become dehydrated and dried out.

Dry outer layers do not mean that your topsets are not viable. It does not mean that they are dried out and dehydrated. They are simply dormant and the dry outer layers are there for protection against damage, mold, bacteria, and dehydration. It is perfectly normal and natural. Alliums (onions and garlic) use this method to protect their "bulbs" as well as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and grape hyacinths (muscari).

Here are some things you can look for to check for viability:
1. Squeeze the topsets and make sure they are firm and not squishy. The dry outer layers will give under your fingers slightly and may feel squishy, but they are just collapsing into eachother because there is air between them. Squeeze fairly hard and you should be able to feel the "onion" inside, and it should not give. You should not be able to crush it easily. It should feel firm and hard.
2. Look for root nodules on the bottom. They may be under a layer of dry outer skin. Remove some of the dry outer layers and you should be able to see whitish/yellowish spots or bumps which are the starts of little roots. Some may be a millimeter or two long or longer.
3. You can peal back the outer layers and find firm whitish/pinkish onion "flesh" underneath.
4. You can peal back the outer dry layers at the top (pointy end) and find the start of a green shoot.

An Egyptian Walking Onion topset 3 months after harvest. The outer protective layers of onion skin are known as the tunic. They are dry and crispy. Is this topset viable? Lets find out!	This is the same topset with most of the dry outer layers removed. When squeezed, this topset is very firm. A good indicator that it is viable, but we will continue to test it further to be sure.
When we turn the topset over, we can see whitish/yellow root nodules on the bottom. They are not dried out. They look ready to start growing at any moment. A good indicator that this is a viable living topset.	We removed the last layer of dry onion skin. We can now see the shiny pinkish "live" onion layer. The root nodules are more visible. The live shiny layer is another indicator that this topset is viable.
The colorful live topset in all its glory! There should be a green leaf sprout at the top (pointy end) under the pink onion layer. Onion layers are called leaf scales. They are modified leaves. Layers of leaf scales are what make up an onion bulb, or in this case, a little Egyptian Walking Onion topset, which is really just a miniature onion bulb!	We pealed back the onion layer and sure enough, here is the little green sprout. It's another indicator that this is a living, viable topset.

If your topsets are squishy when you squeeze them and they collapse in quite a ways, then they may not be viable. If you are in doubt, peel back the outer layers. If you see black mold on the inside layers, and the flesh is soft, brown, and watery, you may be able to save your topset. Peel off all the rotten layers until you find a clean live layer. Let the topset cure for two weeks. The outermost layer will dry up and form a tunic. Then try planting it.
If you squeeze your topset and it collapses into a "poof" of dust, then it is definitely not viable.

Wholesale:

Please contact us for wholesale prices on large quantities. Our Egyptian Walking Onion topsets are not sold by the pound or by size, we sell by count only. Ask us about our discounts for schools and nonprofit organizations :-)

Payment:

We use Paypal as our payment system, but it does not require you to have a PayPal account. When you click the "Add to Cart" button to place your order, you will be directed to our PayPal shopping cart page. You will see my PayPal account email: "tracy@starsunmoon.com" at the top of the page.
If you don't have a Paypal account, you can still click on the "add to cart" button and pay with your credit/debit card through the secured PayPal website: click the "checkout" button (as opposed to the "checkout with PayPal" button), then click the "don't have a PayPal account" link and you will be able to enter your credit/debit card information.

If you do not want to pay over the internet, you can pay with a check or money order payable to "Tracy Paine." Include a note as to what you would like to order. Send it to: Tracy Paine 301 S 10th St., Garfield, WA 99130.

Shipping:

We ship USPS Priority mail.
Shipping for Egyptian Walking Onions within the United States is:
$9.00 (small flat rate box) for 1-2 orders. If one of these two orders is a small box of clusters, then they will need to be shipped in a medium flat rate box.
$15.00 (medium flat rate box) for 3-6 orders
$20.00 (large flat rate box) for 7 and up orders
SORRY, WE CANNOT SHIP TO COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES!
All orders are shipped via USPS Priority Mail except where indicated otherwise.
We will combine shipping!
If your order will fit in a small flat-rate Priority box, then shipping will be a flat $9.00. If your order is bigger, but will fit into a medium flat-rate Priority box, then shipping will be $15.00. Large orders requiring a large flat-rate Priority box will be $20.00. Please notify us if you would like to combine your shipping charges.
Shipping for Plant Catalog items is 1-2 weeks unless you place an order in the dead of winter and I have to wait until the ground thaws to dig your plants.

Another Poem About Egyptian Walking Onions
Written by AI

In gardens of old, they grew tall and green,
Egyptian Walking Onions, a sight to be seen.
With stalks that reach high, and bulbs that divide,
They spread with ease, no need to replant or hide.

Their name may sound strange, but their magic is true,
For these onions walk, as if they have shoes.
They sway in the wind, and bow to the ground,
And where they land, new onions are found.

Their flavor is bold, with a hint of spice,
And they add a depth to any dish they grace.
From soups to salads, and everything in between,
Egyptian Walking Onions make meals supreme.

So if you have a garden, and a taste for the unique,
Plant some Egyptian Walking Onions, and let them speak.
For they are a marvel, a wonder of nature,
And their presence will surely be a pleasure.