I have been ordering from Dixondale for years and love their onion plants and service. Of their long day varieties, the most successful in my New Jersey garden was always Walla Walla, which is also very popular in the pacific northwest, followed by Candy and Big Daddy. This year I moved my garden to my summer home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia and tried seven varieties from Dixondale. This garden has the same climate as my NJ garden due to the elevation (2,600 ft), but the days are about 20 minutes shorter at latitude 37 (versus 40 in NJ). The winner in the VA garden was Copra, followed closely by Candy - both consistently large & beautiful globe shaped onions! Ailsa Craig also did very well, yielding the largest onions, but they only store for about a month. Next came Red Zeppelin, but they were late and inconsistent in size - ranging from small to huge. The worst performers were Walla Walla, Yellow Spanish, and Big Daddy. The poor performance of the usually great Walla Wallas may have been due to the plants I received being rather leggy and limpy, giving them a poor start. Usually the plants from Dixondale are really healthy, but this year the Walls Wallas were sub par. I may give them another chance next year. I suggest you try a sampling of Walla Walla, Candy, and Copra and see what works best in your garden. Be sure to give them plenty of nitrogen and water starting a couple of weeks after planting. I also mulch my onions with a few inches of hay to hold the moisture and suppress weeds (onions hate weeds), but this is not necessary if you keep up on the watering and weeding. Dixondale has excellent growing instructions on their web site. My wife thinks I over did the onions and garlic this year, planting 400 of each for just the two of us. I agree, so I cut the plantings down to only 360 of each for next year! :-) She doesn't understand the addiction. TomNJ/VA

Well, potato onions are the largest. They aren't large, and you just take what you need. They grow in a group, and grow by division. I harvest green tops when needed, and they grow back. Bulbs when needed. You always need to leave some untouched so they multiply. In general they are just called "Potato Onions". You get what you get when you order. I have topset onions, which are slightly larger in the bulb than a green onion. Again, I use tops and then the bulbs and they are very strongly flavored, so one or two onions in a dish is fine. There are several kinds of these under various names. All are heirlooms and probably each has several names...I have some "red" and some white (the color of the bulbs). In June the greens grow thickly and tall, flower and then set into bulbils (not seed) which fall over and root and then you get more onions. Right now is their most active growth period. These like VERY VERY rich soil which drains well and I find do best in afternoon shade. Mine in full sun, good (but not super rich) soil with less moisture tend to go into dormancy and not be so nice in July and August. Those that grow in our church garden in excellent soil, good drainge and afternoon shade look fantastic all year. And they will multiply quickly! My goal is a dedicated allium bed. The Welsh onions are sprinkled around my organic flower bed and I let them self seed. You can get many varieties of the onions through the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and from Fedco (and probably other places)

For starting both leeks and onions from seed my process is the same. I use 2 lb. yogurt containers which are about 5" deep to allow for long root growth. I start 10-12 weeks before my plant out date. I fill the containers with my pre-moistened potting mix (Promix BX) then as evenly as possible distribute about 35 seeds max in each container and then cover with a thin layer of the pro mix. I put the containers on top of my basement freezer for some extra heat and monitor daily for sprouting and when the first sprout pops up I place them under my T8 shop lights about 1" from the bulbs. The plants grow fairly slowly for the first month or so. Initially they don't require very frequent bottom watering but as they grow I have to water more frequently and I also use a water soluble fertilizer diluted to 1/4 strength about every 2 weeks. At about 6-7 weeks they should be around 5" tall and growing their 3rd true leaf. The seed leaf also begins to yellow and wilt at this point. I start giving them haircuts about every 5 days to keep them from getting too leggy and falling over. I try to keep them in the 4-5 inch range. When planting out I just invert the container with my hand under it and the onion/leeks come out in one big clump. I then swish them around in a bucket of water to wash off the potting mix which makes the plants easy to separate.

Looking for the one perfect onion, huh? :-) Seriously, what is your primary goal? Flavor? Only non-sweet? Bulb size? Saving seeds while still having edible onions? Experimentation and pushing the envelope? Etc.? There are easy answers for each one of those but sadly there is no one perfect onion variety that could even come close to perfect for all those goals. Don't we wish! Seed saving for onions is a total waste of time IMO simply because the seeds have such a short life span/viability without expensive ideal storage conditions and even then it is still short. Plus, even when viable, yes there are health, sterility, and production issues with F1 seeds unless they are crossed under ideal conditions. Flavor is as much a product of the growing conditions you provide - soil pH, consistent soil moisture levels, consistent nutrient levels, spacing, planting/harvesting date, proper planting depth (bulbs form above ground), etc. - as it is of the variety. So be sure to re-evaluate all those factors too. Bulb size is exclusively a result of growing the proper day length so unless we want to move or invest in high pressure floodlights, we are stuck (so to speak). But we can make some trade offs - accept smaller bulbs to grow some of the long-day varieties (just grow more of them), change planting dates drastically and protect if necessary, and do everything we can to insure proper growing conditions soil and water wise. Several have mentioned all the great info available at Dixondale Farms in Carrizo Springs, Texas so if you haven't explored all the info they offer please do so. Dave