Greetings for the New Year! We hope your holidays were as pleasant and peaceful as ours were.

In this issue, we'll discuss how to choose onions by day length, and determine which are appropriate for your area of the country.

At the beginning of the growing process, onions form green leaves or "tops," the number and size of which ultimately determine the size of the onion bulb at maturity. Each onion leaf corresponds to a single ring; the bigger the leaf, the bigger the ring. After the tops are formed, the bulbing stage begins.

Bulbing is dependent upon day length and temperature, not the size or age of plants. Therefore, successful onion production is dependent upon proper variety selection for day length in your growing area. As a general rule, long day onions do better in northern states (north of the 36th parallel) during the summers, while short day onions do better in states south of that line. Intermediate day onions will do well in many different areas, depending on the season.

Long Day. Long day onions quit forming tops and begin forming bulbs when the day length reaches 14-16 hours. They're available in both sweet and storage varieties (long day storage onions will store up to eight months). They do best in the region stretching north from the latitudes of central California and New Mexico all the way to central Alaska and southern Canada. Long day sweet onions generally mature within 90-100 days, a few weeks before the storage varieties. Both types are available from now until the beginning of May.

Intermediate Day. Intermediate day onions fall in the 12-14 hours of daylight category, which makes them the most widely adaptable of all our onion varieties. When planted at the proper time, they'll mature in about 100 days. Unless you live in South Texas or South Florida, you should have enough daylight hours to make nice-sized bulbs. All the intermediate day varieties we stock are exceptionally sweet, and are available now until the beginning of May.

Short Day. Short day onions start making bulbs early in the year, when there are only 10-12 hours of daylight. They're planted primarily in the south during winter or early spring, and take about 110 days to mature. If planted in northern states in late spring, they'll mature in just 75 days, but will produce smaller bulbs. They're available now through early April.

If you want to view a map to determine which day length is applicable for your area, visit our Web site.

Enjoy the winter season, folks!

The sweet yellow onion is the Texas State Vegetable, and the best known variety is probably the 1015Y -- so named because the seed is meant to be planted on October 15. This highly-adaptable, globe-shaped onion matures in about 110 days, and grows well from Ohio to Mexico. For the past two years, crop failures have all but wiped out the seed supply, but our customers don't need to worry: three years ago, we grabbed all the seed we could in anticipation of a shortage. Recently, we shipped some breeding stock to a facility in South Africa to produce 1015Y seed just for us. We think it's worth the effort. In fact, we love the 1015Y so much we think October 15th should be proclaimed a Texas holiday!

This month's photo comes from Kelvin Perrien of Turlock, California, who tells us: "Here's a photo I really enjoy. Granex and grandkids -- how sweet it is! I waited until the grandkids, Alexis and Morgan, were over for supper, and they helped me harvest my garden onions. Great onions, great eating, great times with the grandkids."

We love hearing from our customers. Send us your favorite "onion photo" and we'll try to include it in a future newsletter, our next catalog or our upcoming online Photo Album. Click here for details on how to submit your photos.

A. This problem is called basal plate rot, and results from overwatering the onion during the bulbing process. It's caused by a fungus that gets in the soil and attacks the onion through the base plate. I would suggest cutting back on the watering just a little bit during the bulbing process. A good fungicide such as the Mancozeb Flowable we sell would also prevent the disease.

As the largest and oldest onion plant farm in the US, Dixondale Farms offers a wide selection of top-quality, disease-free, ready-to-plant onion plants. To see our complete product line, request a catalog, or for growing tips and cultural information, visit our Web site by clicking here.

Whether you're planting one bunch or thousands of acres, we're committed to your success. If you have either questions or suggestions, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach us from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central Time at 877-367-1015, or e-mail us any time at customerservice@dixondalefarms.com.