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Story by Kris Crookham, Crookham Company
Photos by Dave Alexander, publisher
A season that started with a cool, wet and windy spring, followed by a long stretch of days with temperatures above 100 degrees in July, gave Crookham Company a chance to show off the adaptability of its onion varieties at the Crookham Company Onion Reveal. The event, held in Wilder, Idaho, on Aug. 27, highlighted some of the company’s new yellow and red long-day onions.
“This is a great way to wrap up the long-day growing season and to look forward to the 2025 season,” said Lyndon Johnson, sales development manager at Crookham Company.
OLRS14-1265
Of the up-and-coming varieties Johnson is particularly excited about, OLRS14-1265 is a long-day red onion that matures in 110-112 days. The variety’s pilot production finished in August, and it is now ready to be trialed in growers’ fields across the U.S. The variety has proven to be flexible in planting dates and consistent across the major long-day production areas of the U.S. Placing it in bigger volumes across many different soils types and input usages will allow Crookham to prove the performance that was achieved on a small sale in previous years.
The variety has also kept well in Crookham’s storage trials, and the company is looking to further prove this on a larger scale. Crookham is currently seeking growers to add this trial to their long-day program.
OLYX12-990
OLYX12-990 is an early (105-day) long-day storage yellow variety that has shown great results for growers in the Midwest, Northeast and Northwest. It performs well under overhead irrigation and can achieve a large size profile under drip irrigation in the Northwest. The top structure is upright and vigorous with a root system to match. It finishes early and has the storage capability to provide flexibility to growers.
The variety has had a pilot production and was trialed in large blocks in 2024. Crookham is looking to do a similar block trial pattern in 2025.
OLYX12-721
OLYX12-721 is a main-season (115-day) long-day yellow variety. It has a very long-term storage life and wraps a complete scale upon maturity. The scales are the correct thickness and are multiple to provide protection without causing a black mold issue. The variety also presents a high percentage of single centers, making it suitable for ringing.
Block trials in 2024 were successful, and Crookham is looking to have a similar number of trials in the 2025 growing season.
Crookham Company will be displaying bulbs of these varieties at the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Association Conference in Kennewick, Washington, on Nov. 13-14 and at the Great Lakes Expo in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Dec. 10-12.
