July 2004 ARCHIVES of Andy's Life on
the Farm Shows
July 1st, 2004
Onion Latitudes
This is Andrew Griffin of Mariquita Farm with Life On The Farm. When
someone asked me why they couldn't find a Maui onion in the farmers
markets I suggested they try the Maui farmers market. We can't grow
Maui onions here. It's not a wine thing, either, where some quasi-governmental
board has fixed borders for regional appellations, though it may someday
come to that. A higher authority decides where onion varieties can be
grown: the sun.
World wide there are hundreds of onion varieties. A lot of people don't
realize that many onion varieties will only perform reliably where growing
conditions mimic the environment in which they originally evolved. Sure,
providing good fertility, adequate water, and a well-drained bed in
a weed-free garden are essential, but to form a plump bulb mature onion
plants need to be stimulated by the right amount of warm sunlight.
Latitude determines the length of time the sun shines down. Maui lies
along 21 degrees north latitude, too far south for her sweet onion to
be well adapted to our conditions in K.U.S.P.'s listening area between
35 and 38 degrees. You can take the Maui onion out of Hawaii but you
can't take Hawaii out of the onion. Happily, there are plenty of excellent
onion varieties well adapted to our own growing area. For a photo gallery
of onions that won't do well here click on the Life On The Farm link
at K.U.S.P dot org. For K.U.S.P. this is Andrew Griffin.
copyright 2004 Andrew Griffin
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