Greetings!

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The most important step in ensuring you grow robust onions is to choose the right onion for your geographic area. Onion varieties are characterized by three day lengths: long-day in the north, intermediate-day in the central U.S., and short-day in the southern states.

The Basics

As a rule, long-day onions do better in the region north of the 36th parallel, while short-day onions do better south of that line. Intermediate-day onions will do well in many different areas, generally across the middle portion of the country, depending on the season. Take a look at the map below to get a general idea of onion day length regions. Note that Intermediate-Day overlaps both the Long-Day and Short-Day regions somewhat.      

Long-Day Onions stop forming tops and start forming bulbs when the day length reaches 14-16 hours. They're available in both sweet and storage varieties. These onions 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 storage onions will store up to eight months. Long-day sweet onions generally mature within 90-100 days, a few weeks before the storage varieties. Both types are available from January until mid-May.    

Intermediate-Day Onions require 12-14 hours of daylight, which makes them the most widely adaptable of all our varieties. When planted at the proper time, they'll mature in about 100 days. Unless you live in the southernmost part of the U.S., you should have enough daylight hours to make nice-sized bulbs. All our intermediate-day varieties are very sweet, and are available from December until mid-April.     

Short-Day Onions start making bulbs early in the year, when there are only 10-12 hours of daylight. They're planted mostly in the southern third of the U.S. 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 from November through April 1.

Happy planting,

Bruce "Onionman" Frasier

Product of the Month 
Storage Bags 

• One pound onions, red or yellow, cut into 1/8-inch rings
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar  
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons paprika  

Q. How can I freeze my onions for later use?   

Here's yet another reason to eat your onions: they may fight osteoporosis. Normally, special cells called osteoclasts control bone growth by absorbing excess bone tissue as it forms. However, in some people (especially older women) these cells do their jobs too well, causing bones to become brittle and easily broken.  

A 2005 clinical study showed that a peptide called GPCS in white onions destroys osteoclasts before they can damage healthy bone -- at least in rats. Whether GPCS works as effectively against human osteoclasts has not yet been determined. For further details, click here. 

All Your Questions Answered 

We have answers to your frequently asked questions! Just click the link for information on when to order your onions, as well as for tips on planting, caring, feeding, harvesting, and storing them.

Share Your Photos for our Centennial! 

Next year marks our one-hundredth year in business, and we'd love you to share in our upcoming Centennial Celebration! In 2013, we'll be featuring even more customer photos than usual in our catalog, newsletters, and other publications. So send us photos and descriptions of your Dixondale onion crops, whether they're recent or from years ago! Just be sure to include your name and location. Send stories about your best and most challenging growing experiences, too, so we can share those with fellow growers.

Post a Review  

In addition to sending us your photos and stories, we encourage you to give us feedback on our products. You'll find a "write your own review" link on every product page. Just visit our Web site and click on the product. Don't be shy -- we value your feedback.  

As the largest and oldest onion plant farm in the U.S., 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. 

Whether you're planting one bunch or thousands of acres, we're committed to your success. We've posted answers to frequently asked questions about growing onions on our FAQ page. If you have other questions, call us from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM CDT at 877-367-1015, or e-mail us any time at [email protected].

Join Us On Facebook!  

Join the community of friends and growers on our  Facebook page! You can connect with us and fellow growers to share stories, photos, recipes and even weather information and other tips.

Back on August 10, a customer sent us a photo of onions with flat sides, wondering why this had happened. Well, this demonstrates graphically what happens when you plant onions too close together and the bulbs end up misshapen. We appreciate photos like this, where our customers share their successes and lessons as they "grow" as gardeners.