Published 12:06 pm Thursday, August 29, 2024
ONTARIO, Ore. — Breeder Sheila Adimargono and product manager Liesbet Bruyneel checked a couple of entries that their employer, seed company Hazera, entered in Oregon State University’s Onion Variety Day.
They liked what they saw.
Adimargono and Brunyeel checked out a Hazera-developed white, long-day onion with mid- to long-range storability.
“It looks very uniform” in size and shape, Bruyneel said. “It has very nice quality.”
She and Adimargono looked at a long-day yellow onion with a midrange maturity schedule and good storability. They liked its skin retention and color, and its firmness.
The Aug. 28 event at OSU’s Malheur Experiment Station featured some 50 varieties.
“The fact that they’re all here in one place is the key,” said Shawn Donkin, OSU associate dean of research and associate director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station system.
Growers can see varieties they might want to plant, while processors can look for onions that meet particular needs, he said. OSU’s ongoing research and work with the industry also benefit.
Rennie Neider, incoming agriculture instructor at Ontario-based Treasure Valley Community College, was attending his first Onion Variety Day. He participated in recent field days at OSU-Malheur and the nearby University of Idaho Parma Research and Extension Center.
Neider aimed to get to know researchers and other industry participants, explore opportunities to partner with OSU, and get some economic-impact detail.
“I’m curious to see, economically, varieties we are producing in the county and which are dominant,” he said.
Onions vary in color, size, maturity timetable and how they stand up to the region’s at-times-harsh conditions. Seed companies use trials to evaluate overall performance before they roll out new offerings.
The OSU trial is fairly early in the sense that the onions still must dry and cure, said Brett Ross, account manager with seed company Nunhems in Parma. For example, in 10 to 15 days, “we’ll see which has drier or lighter skin.”
The trial provides a good indication of bulb size, yield, shape, color, and “which varieties mature sooner or later,” Ross said.
“The biggest benefit is you’re soon enough that you can get enough growers out before they get really busy with onion harvest,” he said.
Overall, this year’s trial onions look about average or possibly a bit smaller — a function of high heat and “a lot of smoke,” said Dave Whitwood, germplasm development scientist with Syngenta Seeds.
Growers in southeast Oregon and southwest Idaho likely will get a better hundredweight return per acre than in 2023, when usually heavy rains hit late in the season and increased disease pressure, said Lyndon Johnson, onion sales development manager with Crookham Co. in Caldwell, Idaho. He expects this year’s crop, of about 21,500 acres, to store well.
Hazera fielded two yellow, two red and one white variety in the trial.
Onion growers in the Treasure Valley and the Columbia Basin want “reliable varieties that can perform in all weather,” Adimargono said.
“You learn the adaptability of the variety,” she said.
Several participants planned to attend the Washington State University Extension Onion Field Day Aug. 29.
