Long day or Short day Onions

The type of onions you plant depends on your latitude. It’s common for beginning gardeners not to know the difference between long-day and short-day onions.

LONG DAY OR SHORT DAY ONIONS? 

Onions are photoperiodic, which means they are sensitive to the amount of daylight they receive. When days last 12 hours or more, leaf production stops and bulbs begin to form, different varieties of onions have been bred for different parts of the country.

Long Day Onion Varieties

Some good long day onions are:‘Walla-Walla’ or ‘Ailsa Craig’ if you want huge onions. ‘Red Wing’, ‘Red Florence’, or ‘Southport Red’ are good reds.‘Copra’, ‘Yellow Globe’ or ‘Sweet Sandwich’ are good keepers.

Short Day Onion Varieties

A few good short day onions are:‘Yellow Granex’ for sweet Vidalia-type onions.‘Texas 1015-Y Supersweet’ or ‘Red Creole’ store well.‘White Bermuda’ for a mild onion.

WHAT ABOUT DAY-NEUTRAL ONION VARIETIES?

Day-neutral onions don’t care about day length and will produce an excellent crop in any part of the country. Some catalogs refer to them as intermediates. Some good day-neutrals are:‘Super Star’ is a mild white that produces large, sweet bulbs.‘Candy’ is a yellow that stores well. It can grow to be softball-sized.‘Red Stockton’ is a large, globe-shaped red that also stores well.

All onions appreciate an early start since temperature and day-length trigger bulb formation. Cool weather encourages heavy leaf growth so it is important to get your onions growing before warm weather hits. Onions prefer sweet fertile soil with near neutral pH and need lots of sunshine. The sulfur that gives them their bite comes from sulfur in the soil. Since they are shallow rooted plants, keep them well weeded and use mulch to keep the soil cool and moist. Onions grow best if planted where lettuce or squash grew the previous year.