It’s one thing to evaluate storage onions in the field, but it’s a much different exercise to take them out of storage and rate them on the grading line.

Each November, Seminis sales and product development representatives from the Eastern region travel to the Seminis research station in DeForest, Wisc. to judge the season’s storage onions for size, scale and storability and then make recommendations on which varieties should be advanced.

They are joined by Seminis long day
onion breeder Scott Hendricks and members from Seminis’ Production, Foundation Seed and the Root and Bulb core team.

New and commercial Seminis storage onion varieties, along with competitive checks, are harvested over the summer. Three to four bags of onions are taken from each 30-foot plot. There are four replications and a one-bag sample (60 to 70 pounds) is taken from each to make a representative lot to store and grade.

“It’s really quite a process,” said Eastern regional product development manager Paul Lilley. “From each lot we take 20 onions that are cut for single-centers. The rest of the lot runs through the grader. Then, the onions are weighed and, finally, they are put into storage where they will be evaluated monthly for storability.”

Four varieties appear to have great potential for the Northeastern United States, and hoping to explore new territory in the onion market, the varieties have been named after famous explorers of the Northeast.

“I’m really excited about our new explorer series,” said Ron Garton, the Seminis product development specialist for New York and Ontario. “Champlain is early-maturing. Then we move into the main season with Mackenzie and Cabot and finish the season with Nicolet. It’s a high quality line-up from start to end.”

Champlain has 90-day maturity and medium-term storage. It is especially well-suited for cooler growing areas and muck soils. Mackenzie has large, round bulbs and excellent uniformity with 108-day maturity. Cabot is a 110-day onion with a high yield potential that performs well throughout New York. And Nicolet has outstanding plant vigor and a strong root system. With 112-day maturity, it has a high yield potential and long-term storability.

“There’s more good news on the way,” said Hendricks. “I’m very excited about several new lines that we’ve just begun to test. And we have some reds that we’ll see in first-look trials this year that are a dark purple color and highly single-centered.”

Like the explorers who first ventured into the Northeast, the Seminis storage onion program is poised on the brink of a promising future with a pipeline of new products and features for onion growers.

Explore the possibilities with storage onions from Seminis.

Seminis is the world’s leading developer, producer and marketer of vegetable seeds. Its products are designed to reduce the need for agricultural chemicals, increase crop yield, reduce spoilage, offer longer shelf life, and create better tasting foods and foods with higher nutritional content. Seminis has established a worldwide presence and global distribution network that spans 150 countries and territories.