long day/short day onions

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kls_01 Champaign, IL(Zone 5b) May 17, 2007

I was looking in a seed catalog, and noticed they listed the onions as long day or short day? What does this mean? Is it referring to how much sunlight it should get? Thanks...

Kristie

Post #3507533
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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) May 17, 2007

Onions are triggered to bulb by the length of daylight hours. A short day onion starts forming a bulb when the daylength reaches 10-12 hours. They are primarily grown in the winter and harvested in March, April and May. Mostly grown in the southern states. Day neutral or intermediate day onions are triggered with 12-14 hours of daylight. Cultivars like Candy are very popular with home home gardeners. Long Day onions need 14 - 16 hours of daylight to begin bulbing. These are normally grown in the summer in more northern states, where daytime temps don't overwhelm them. You would want a day neutral or long day onion in Illinois.

Post #3507696
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kls_01 Champaign, IL(Zone 5b) May 17, 2007

Thanks Farmerdill! I had a feeling you'd be the one to answer me. I have Sweet Spanish onions and white bunching onions(do these pertain to the short/long day thing?). Also, i had some white bunching onions(I think) last year, and didn't pull them up after the season.....they're still growing and have flowered. Are they edible? Last year near the end of the season they started having a bitter taste, which is why I stop harvesting them...I'm assuming they're probably still bitter...they smell a little like they might be. Can I get seed from the flowers, and is it hard to collect?

Oh yeah, and just figured out what the Uber means under your name. You've added quite a bit of info to this website...Thanks farmerdill, its all very helpful to many people!

Kristie

Post #3507723
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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) May 17, 2007

Yes, Sweet Spanish and the bunching onions are long day. Usually an onion loses a lot of quality when it flowers. If you want to save seeds just let them dry on the stalk and then shuck them out. Bunching onions are designed to be used as green onions. Never grew them myself, just used the sets of things like Yellow Danvers in early spring and grew them as green onions. Storage onions tend to be pungent, so rarely let one mature.

Post #3507882
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