Rakkyo – Chinese Onion, Allium chinense

Do you want to cook authentic Japanese dishes or just grow an onion that produces bulbs through the summer months? Try rakkyo a small bulbed onion that is very easy to grow, is good for pickles and is mild enough for salads. I often use the tops when my chives look limp in summer.

Rakkyo flowers look very ornamental.

This onion can be grown anywhere in Australia, from Queensland to the Mountains, rakkyo is heat-tolerant and frost-hardy . Rakkyo looks fragile and tiny but it is a very hardy and tough plant that will form a thick clump, just like chives if left alone. Rakkyo will soon form a sizable clump with many bulbs to fill a bed.  For bulb development, you need to separate and space the plants around 10 cm apart and plant just under the surface, not too deep. Harvest just before they start to flower and replant the smaller bulbs while eating the bigger ones. Cure them roots and tops cut off on a wire mesh for storage. The whole plant is edible.

Rakkyo likes well-drained soil, wood ash and lime. Rakkyo is mostly propagated vegetatively.

I haven’t figured out how to integrate any perennial onion in my food forest. They are quickly run over by other plants, especially if planted at the right distance. Also, all onions do like sun. If you know something please drop a comment below!