Here in Oklahoma we plant short-day and intermediate. I get great crops from both. I've grown Copra and it bulbed up to less than half of the size it would in an area with the proper daylength. It wasn't that great of a onion, but that could be because I grew it in an area that does not meet its daylength requirements--and I knew when I tried it that I might not get any bulbing at all. I grew it because I wanted to see if you "could" grow it here, and you can, but not with great results. I am in extreme southern OK--so far south I am surrounded on three sides (south, west, east) by the Red River and Texas. Someone in extreme northern OK might have better luck with Copra. For what it is worth, most of my sweet onions, including Candy, store 4 to 6 months, and sometimes longer, for me if I harvest them at the proper time, cure them extremely well and then store them in optimal conditions. How well they store is, I think, partly influenced by how much moisture they receive while growing. The onions I grow in a dry year store better and longer than the ones I grow in an excessively wet year. I also get the best storage most years from the ones I keep in the underground tornado shelter in net tubes that I purchase from Dixondale Farms. I usually keep some in the tornado shelter and some in the garage because I like to see how well they hold when stored in different conditions. I also prolong the "life" of the onions by chopping up a lot of them, dicing others finely, and slicing some and then storing them in the freezer in zip-lock bags, usually in 1-cup and 2-cup portions. In the winter when I'm cooking soups, stews and other dishes that require cooked onions, I just pull a bag out of the freezer and use it. This year I am going to try dehydrating some to use in cooking. I dry lots of other stuff, but I've haven't dried onions very much. For me, Candy stores a little longer than Texas Supersweet (1015Y) and it also stores longer than Stockton Red. This year I am growing Candy Apple Red as my red variety. I have had good harvests with all the short-day and intermediate varieties I've tried here. Contessa and Super Star (white onions) stored better than any of the yellow and red onions, although Southern Belle Red stored for about 3 to 4 months, which is much longer than you'd expect. Where and how you store them affects how long you can store them. Basements (as long as they are not too damp), root cellars or underground tornado shelters all seem to store onions pretty well. My onions store moderately well in an unheated pantry beneath our stairwell, but not as long as they store in the garage or tornado shelter. Hope this info is helpful. Dawn

Alisande, we have a damp basement, too, and, like you said it's a pain to empty it. We have to empty it about twice a day in the wet season. As you might imagine, we're really tired of doing this! We wish we had a floor drain to have it empty into, but we don't since it's an old house. What we're going to try to do--and maybe you can do this, too--is figure out how to get the dehumidifier drain into the laundry sink. In our case, we need to rig some sort of hose for it and figure out a way to raise the dehumidifier to the proper height. But maybe you don't have a sink in your basement... :( Even so, a dehumidifier is worth having. We got ours at Lowes for about $120 and it has been money very well spent. Our basement smells clean and nice, and the items we store down there don't get damp like they did before we were running the dehumidifier. Of course, a dehumidifier can't solve all moisture problems. It definitely sounds like your gutters/etc were causing the problems. You might want to take a look at some books on basement moisture problems. Right now, I have two books out of the library on this subject that are really helping us figure out how to make some simple fixes without calling in the professionals. Home Water and Moisture Problems: Prevention and Solutions by Gary Branson (this one is so good that I'm planning on buying it for friends and family for Christmas!) 5 Steps to a Dry Basement or Crawl Space by Ronald K. Gay I sure hope some of this info is useful. I know how annoying it is to have a wet basement. Good luck!

At Target recently I bought white plastic 'reOrganizables' (house brand) medium size bins with holes in sides that have a gray piece in handle that allows optional stacking. Not expensive $3.59 and very washable. I would guess one would hold 5 lbs or more of spuds. By stacking them, I hope to avoid the "nasty one on the bottom" syndrome. I also brought home for evaluation a black bin with sides made of plastic circles (air spaces between them) which was even cheaper at $2.50. Also comes in white. This would serve the purpose well--it's taller than the other style but has same footprint. But until my pantry is done, my spuds are in a long, thin handleless garage sale willow basket that disappears when set on my new mottled countertop. I rather like it and it's very convenient.

Egyptian onions can stay outside if you are just harvesting for propagation for next year. Just replant them in late summer/fall and let them start growing. Like garlic they may put out some growth then stall over winter. They are very hardy. If you store them, try not to peel them too much as the wrapper helps storage. I store my multiplier onions and garlic in the basement, it is cooler than the rest of the house. I closely monitor indoor humidity for wooden instrument care purposes, and my house typically ranges from 36-45% in winter. I keep bulbs on the mesh screen supports you use to carry a seedling tray. I do lose some in storage if I wait until spring to plant. I constantly go through the screens of bulbs and throw out rotting/moldy/shriveled ones. Typically my nose tells me something is wrong. Sour stink.