🧅 Catawissa Egyptian Onion
What it looks like
Why this variety
Catawissa is the named heirloom strain of the Egyptian walking onion, distinct from the generic type: a taller, more vigorous plant, listed by Cornell’s variety program as a topset variety from Canada, with plants around 30 inches tall — taller than similar Egyptian bunching onions — and a habit of constantly trying to set even more topsets on extensions from the first set of topsets. The topsets are red, the plant is prolific, and growers who keep it describe it as the walking onion that walks further and faster than the standard type.
For the gardener, Catawissa is the walking onion for a perennial green-onion patch: harvest green shoots in spring and fall, harvest topsets in late summer for replanting and for pickling or roasting, and let the plant walk — a topset that touches soil roots and starts a new plant, which is the charm and the warning. It is also a heritage story: a strain passed gardener to gardener, preserved in home gardens rather than bred in a laboratory, and still going.
If you are new to choosing between cultivars, the Varieties Matter guide explains why the name after the plant matters as much as the plant itself. And if you want the whole clan at a glance, the broader Egyptian Onion guide covers egyptian onion generally.
How to grow
In Florida, Egyptian onion is a perennial that earns its keep in the north and center and works as a cool-season crop farther south: plant topsets in fall, harvest green shoots through the mild months, and let the plant walk — topsets that touch soil root and start new plants, which is the whole charm and the whole warning. Give it a contained bed or a spot where walking is welcome, because a walking onion that walks into a path is still a walking onion.
Plant topsets in fall, 6 inches apart in well-drained, fertile soil, and let them root slowly over winter. Harvest green shoots in spring, and in late summer harvest the topset clusters, separate them, and replant where you want new plants — or let them fall and walk. Give Catawissa a contained bed, because a vigorous walking onion walks into paths and neighboring beds if you let it.
Water & feeding
Egyptian onion wants well-drained, fertile soil and steady water while it is growing, but it forgives a dry spell better than most onions — it is a perennial survivor, not a prima donna. Mulch to hold moisture, feed with compost in fall and again in spring, and do not overwater in summer heat, when the plant would rather rest than swim.
Common problems
Onion maggots and thrips visit as with other onions; rotation and row cover help. The main management issue is the walking itself: a Catawissa patch left alone spreads, so harvest topsets promptly and pull volunteers from places you do not want onions. In hot summers the plant rests; do not overwater it into rot while it waits for cool weather.
Harvest
Harvest green shoots in spring and fall as mild green onions, topsets in late summer for replanting, pickling, or roasting, and small bulbs from year two onward. Catawissa’s topsets are the harvest that matters most — plant some, pickle some, roast some, and let a few walk, because a walking onion patch that never walks is a patch that never renews itself.
Nerdy fact: Catawissa’s name ties it to a town and a gardening tradition: heirloom walking onions were passed from garden to garden, and strains took the names of the places and people who kept them. Catawissa is that tradition in a name — a strain, not a laboratory cultivar, kept alive because gardeners liked it enough to keep planting it, which is the oldest form of plant breeding there is.
Saving seeds
Catawissa is a named heirloom strain, so true seed isn’t the way to keep it — replant your best topsets instead. The Propagation section of the Egyptian Onion guide covers how the species is propagated.