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Preventing Sunscald
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June 2009
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Dear Fellow Gardener,
Last month, we took a look at bacterial soft
rot, one of the most common problems that
onions face. This time we'll look at
another: sunscald.
Sunscald isn't actually a disease; it's
heat damage. It's primarily a problem for
seedlings and mature bulbs, and seems to
strike white onions especially hard. The
scalded areas look bleached, as in the
accompanying photo, and are soft
and slippery.
Causes of Sunscald
Sunscald is most likely to occur during
curing
after harvest, especially if the onions are
lifted before they've matured enough to
develop their protective wrapper leaves.
 You can avoid this form of
sunscald by using
a method called "shingling." The onions
should be placed on the ground in windrows,
with the tops of one row covering the bulbs
of another, as we've illustrated in the photo
here. The onions are then left in that
position until the tops become dry. The
length of time required for the tops to dry
depends on the weather, and may be anywhere
from 3-10 days.
Sunscald can also occur as the result of
direct sunlight on dark soil, which can raise
the surface temperature to over 150 degrees,
scalding the onions at the soil
line. Keeping the soil moist, but not wet,
can help keep soil temperatures from rising
too high.
How to Recognize Sunscald
Scalded
onion tissue is initially pale, soft, and slippery, but it
soon dries
and
shrivels up, becoming brown and necrotic.
Unless the affected onions are cured rapidly, the
scalded areas can leave them open to
infection by bacterial soft rot, neck rot,
gray mold (botrytis) and other diseases
during storage.
All that may sound pretty nasty, but just
keep in mind that it's easy enough to avoid
sunscald. If you'll moisten
the ground when
it's hot and sunny, and
be extra
careful during the curing process, your
onions
should be just fine.
Happy harvesting,
Bruce "Onionman" Frasier
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Product of the Month
Ten Pound Box of Red Candy Apple Onions
We proudly announce the very first commercial
crop of Red Candy Apple onions! This
intermediate-day hybrid was developed by
Dixondale
Farms to be so sweet that you can literally eat it
like an
apple. And for a limited time of just two
weeks, you can order them by the ten-pound
box, just like our sweet yellow onions
-- and for the same price of $18.95 per
box ($17.95 if you buy two boxes or more).
Better snap up some of these beauties before
they're gone!
Learn More
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From Our Friends
Proud father Richard Schintler sends us this:
"Here is a picture of my daughter Faith with
her award-winning onions (Candy, I believe)
at the North Central Kansas Free Fair last
summer. Her onions were by far the largest
and best looking! Thank you for a great product."
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
online Photo Album. Click
here for details on how to
submit your photos.
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Around the Farm
The Harvesting Process
We're often asked how we harvest our onion
plants. Well, our workers collect them from
the field in bunches, tying them together
with rubber bands before cutting the tops off
so that the bunches will fit in their
containers. Each variety is placed in a
color-coded container in the field; these
containers are then sent into town for
packing in USPS or UPS boxes.
Pictured here is one of our loyal workers,
Juan Sanchez, who drives 50 miles each way to
work every day. Juan works so fast that it
takes him about 5 hours to make his
self-imposed daily quota.
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Cooking With Leeks
Chilled Leek Soup with Caviar
- 5 leeks, sliced thin
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and diced
- 4 ounces of caviar
- 1/4 cup of chopped chives
- 1/4 cup of unsalted butter
- 3 cups of chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cup of heavy cream
- 2 cups of water
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
This is a unique take on French vichyssoise,
the famous chilled potato soup.
First, melt the butter in a large pot over
medium heat. When it starts to bubble, add
the leeks and stir well, completely coating
the slices with the butter before adding the
salt and pepper to the mix. Then turn down
the heat and cook the leeks for ten minutes,
or until they're soft. Next, add the water,
potatoes, and chicken broth, and bring the
pot to a boil before turning down the heat
and allowing it to simmer for 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat, and allow the soup to cool
to room temperature. Then puree it in a
blender until it's smooth, and refrigerate it
overnight or until thoroughly chilled.
Immediately before serving, whisk in the
cream and lemon juice, and season to taste.
Add a sprinkling of caviar and chives, and
serve.
Makes 8 servings.
Onions can enhance so many dishes, from simple
salads to complex entrees; and they can also be
consumed raw, fried, saut�ed or baked. We
periodically receive sumptuous recipe
suggestions
from our employees and from you, our customers.
We want to share one with you each month, so
that
you can take full advantage of the fruits of
your labor! If
you have one you would like us to print,
please email it
to us at
[email protected].
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Q&A: How Do Onions Handle A Wet Spring?
Q. Here in Indiana, we're experiencing
an extremely wet spring, and I am concerned
about my onion plants. I grow all my
vegetables in raised beds, which under normal
circumstances drain quite well -- but not
this year. I planted First Edition and Yellow
Sweet
Spanish starts on April 10th, and since then
have experienced more rainy days than those
with sun. How worried should I be about rot,
and what kind of crop can I expect?
A. Excellent question. Onions don't
like "wet feet." They like to take up just
enough moisture to get their nutrients and to
generate carbohydrates in the tops. When they
experience excessive moisture, they
basically shut down until they dry up and can
generate solid carbohydrates. Their
development will fall behind, but generally
speaking they will still make onions, though
those onions won't be as big as you might
expect if the conditions were better.
Also, once things dry up, your onions will
need two things: nitrogen,
and a fungicide
to kill all the microbes growing on the
leaves due to the wetness. Nitrogen will have
been leached from the soil by the rain, and
if you don't start fertilizing every two
weeks, you'll have a rotting problem in
storage. Be religious about applying
fungicide every 10-14 days, too. The
bacterial and fungal spores have been
created, and they will show up when the
onions ripen.
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Fun Onion Facts
For some reason, onions have been the subject
of a surprising number of public laws. For
example: in Grant's Pass, Oregon, it's
perfectly legal to chuck an onion at an
annoying salesman who won't stop bothering
you. On the other hand, you can't purchase
onions after dark in Tamarack, Idaho without
a special permit. And if you eat an onion
with a spoon in Okanagon, Washington, you
just might end up in jail.
But this one takes the cake: if you're a
husky lady who likes to wear comfortable
clothes, be extra vigilant in Ridgeland,
South Carolina. It's illegal for any woman
over 200 pounds and wearing shorts to be seen
eating an onion in any public place, even a
restaurant!
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Send Us Your Product Reviews!
In addition to sending us recipes and photos of your
onions, we encourage you to give us
feedback on our products via the Product
Review options on the Web site. You'll find
a "write your own review" link on every
product page. Don't be shy -- we need
your opinions!
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About Dixondale Farms
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
[email protected].
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