Who Doesn't Like Onions?
Julia Child once said, “It is hard to imagine civilization without onions.” Who doesn’t like onions? Certainly one of the madman’s favorite vegetables. I have to keep reminding him that the dish is called chicken and onions, not onions and chicken. Because he likes them so much, it’s only natural that he should grow them.
History of the Onion
Pliny the Elder mentioned how onions were grown in gardens in Pompeii. Sure enough, archeologists found onion gardens in their excavation of Roman ruins. Ancient Egyptians revered the onion so much that they buried their Pharaohs with onions. Native Americans used a wild onion in their cooking. And the pilgrims showed up with their own onions ready to plant. Historically, onions are a big thing.
The United States is the world’s largest producer of onions. According to research, the average American consumes over 30 pounds of onions per year. Yet, there are less than 1000 onion farms in the country.
Our Adventures with Onions
The madman and I have been planting onions since we started gardening, but have only been successful at it in recent years. Here in Connecticut, there are three ways to grow onions. 1. You can grow them from seeds if you start early enough. 2. You can use onion sets, planted directly in the garden when the soil can be worked. 3. You can plant onion seedlings as soon as the ground can be worked. In our early gardening adventures, we thought you had to plant from onion sets which are little bulbs.
Mostly, we got green onions for the salad; sometimes we got a bulb. The madman was starting to think, “Why bother? They sell these at the store.” Then one day we received a catalog from the now defunct Piedmont Plant Company in Georgia. He could buy bunches of onion plants and decided to give it a try.
The Switch to Onion Plants
When the bundles came in, we planted them in the garden. For the first time, we had some success. Some varieties produced thick bulbs, others didn’t do so well. We couldn’t figure out why – we had treated them all the same. Then one year, the Piedmont catalog didn’t arrive – unbeknownst to the madman they had left the onion business. No Piedmont catalog – the madman was devastated; he thought he was beginning to figure out the science of growing onions.
Then came the turning point. One day I found him reading a new catalog with great interest. “Wow!” he exclaimed, “the people at Dixondale Farms have explained everything to me! I didn’t know growing onions was so involved. My habit of plant and forget is all wrong!” Thank you, Dixondale Farms.
The Science of Onions
As with everything, it all starts with the site. Onions grow best in a well-drained area in full sun. They like a rich soil. They need the traditional NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium), and several micronutrients, so get your soil tested and be prepared to amend as necessary. The growers at Dixondale Farms recommend yearly amendment. They also note that the critical time for adding micronutrients is during the initial growing period.
Onions roots are shallow and they don’t like competition so be prepared to weed and mulch. You can save yourself a lot of time and effort by using an organic pre-emergent herbicide such as corn gluten. You can get this down while you are preparing your soil.
With your bed prepared, it’s time to plant. By the way, don’t wait until June to plant because onions need the cool weather to grow roots and leaves. The madman’s plants arrive the third week in April. But, what varieties should you plant?
The Challenge of Onion Classification
This is where it gets good, or complicated, depending upon your definition of good. Onions are classified by color – red, white or yellow. Or by shape – round, flattened or elongated. Or by shape and color. (I’m beginning to understand why Einstein stuck to physics instead of onions!) But, what the madman found most confusing was that onions are photothermoperiodic (there’s an SAT word for you). Simply put, onions are sensitive to temperature and daylight, resulting in their most important classification – length of day. There are short day, intermediate day and long day onions. The growers at Dixondale Farms have a good description of this on their website.
During the first part of its growth, the onion produces leaves – in one of the Dixondale Farms newsletters, the madman read that an onion needs 13 leaves to form a good bulb. Each leaf corresponds to a ring on the onion, so the more thick leaves a plant has, the bigger the onion will be.
Short Day? Long Day?
Onion bulb formation starts when the temperature and length of day coincide. Short day onions need 12 hours of daylight at the appropriate temperature while long day varieties need at least 14 hours. Intermediates are somewhere in between. That’s a lot of calculations, but the good news is that the onion growers have already made the calculations for you. So, all this complicated stuff is easy. Here in Connecticut, the madman uses long day varieties because they store best for us. By the way, short day onions have a lower sulfur content, so they are best used shortly after harvest.
Growers do the Thinking
For the madman, growing onions has become quite simple. He just has to figure out which variety he wants to grow and when he wants to plant them. For onion growers, like our friends at Dixondale Farms, the thinking is much more involved. In addition to starting onions for the madman’s climate zone, they are starting plants for gardeners in every other climate zone. The madman wondered what an operation like this would look like.
So, when he planned the Big Bend Road trip, he was elated to discover that Carrizo Springs, home of Dixondale Farms, was a slight detour on the route back to the airport. “It will only take us 5 to 6 hours to get there from Big Bend!” he said. (Remember, he is a madman!) He emailed Mary at customer service and got a reply that basically said Come on over – gotta love that South Texas hospitality!
On the Road
On our way back from Big Bend, we showed up at the offices – what a pleasant experience: they had been waiting for us. Armed with directions and a map, we headed over to meet Brian and Emily King at the 107 year old farm. After exchanging pleasantries, we climbed into Brian’s truck/office to begin our crash course in Onions 101.
Onions 101
Brian told us that Dixondale Farms covered 2200 acres. Do you have any idea how big that is? The madman didn’t so Brian said, “Look around. Where the trees start, the farm ends.” All the madman could think was “those trees are awful far away.”
We drove past rows and rows of onion plants in various stages of development. The long straight rows seemed to stretch forever. Emily and Brian talked about their operations as we drove. Their knowledge of onions was only surpassed by their pride in showing us onion farming at its best. As Emily showed how a bunch is harvested, banded and labeled for shipping the madman asked if it was possible to see his Copra onions.
The Madman Checks Out His Onions
Brian walked back to his truck/office and pulled out a map of the beds. We got back in the truck and drove past millions upon millions of onion plants till he stopped by an area with a large Copra marker. “Your Copras will come from here,” Brian said. Then we found our Redwings, Sterlings and Tropeas in the same fashion.
Down on the Farm
Since we visited on a Friday afternoon, harvesting was done for the week, but some fields were being cultivated and others watered. The main irrigation method at Dixondale Farms is furrow or flood irrigation – water runs down the furrows between rows of onions. Although some overhead watering systems are still used, they are being phased out. Brian feels that overhead watering increases the risk of fungal infection, and believe me, they go out of their way to prevent fungal infections. As Emily explains, best practices prevent problems.
These practices include an organic pre-emergent herbicide as beds are prepared, treatments with an organic fungicide as plants grow and a crop rotation system that just stunned the madman. When the onions are harvested, cantaloupes are planted. After the melons go to market (some 45,000 per day during the 6-week season), the beds lay fallow for five years. The madman says it’s great to have 2200 acres instead of 500 square feet.
What an Operation!
The madman was thoroughly impressed with the fields, but the green fields represent only a part of the operation. Beyond the fields were areas that made it all possible – the refrigerated seed storage area, the crates of onion labels, the onion storage crates, the equipment shed. This shed housed Brian’s newest acquisition – a harvester he had designed with the help of a European manufacturer.
From the equipment shed we went to the seed storage building. The madman had never seen so many onion seeds. When our hosts found the madman staring at a large container of Copra seeds, they confirmed what the madman had heard – the variety is being phased out. When these seeds are gone, Copra seed production will cease. But, guess what? The folks at Dixondale Farms have known this for years and have been trialing replacement varieties – as Brian said, “Don’t worry, we got you covered.”
A Team of Expert
What a happy note to end our visit. We had expected to spend ½ hour, but it turned in to an entire afternoon. We ended realizing that by choosing Dixondale Farms for our onion plants we hired the most incredible team of experts. They know their onions. They know what onion varieties will grow best in our area (and, every other area of the country). And, they know how we should prepare our soil, when we should plant our onions, how we should care for them, when and how we should harvest them and how we should store them. And, if we should get stuck along the way, they are there to answer our questions.
As we left Brian and Emily, we knew our onion seedlings were in good hands. The madman can’t wait for the third week of April when his bunches of Dixondale Farms onions are scheduled to arrive. If only the other vegetables were as easy.
It’s January now, time to peruse the seed catalogs with a nice hot cup of cocoa.
