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Story and photos by Dave Alexander, Publisher
At the 2025 Crookham Onion Reveal in August, the Idaho-based seed producer introduced new varieties to growers in Wilder, Idaho. We caught up with Lyndon Johnson, sales development manager at Crookham, to get the story on the new offerings, including two new mild yellows and a new red.
Delightful is a new intermediate-day yellow from Crookham that will be available for the 2026 planting season. It features a couple of traits that may have inspired its name.
Developed for northern latitudes, Delightful matures in 105 to 108 days. It does have some daylight sensitivity, so it needs to be planted early. Growers should shoot for planting anywhere from March 15 to April 10. This new variety is particularly mild. Johnson has tested it over the last three years, confirming pyruvate levels in the high threes to low fours. It also has high sugars, from 8.5% to 9%.
“It’s very, very mild. And it also stores. You can store Delightful probably until Thanksgiving, maybe almost up to Christmas,” Johnson said.
The other “delightful” trait of this variety is high yield. In the Columbia Basin of Washington, test plots produced 57 tons per acre. That translates to 1,150 100-pound bags an acre, exemplary for an intermediate.
“A tearless onion out of the ground,” is how Johnson describes OIYS19-980, the company’s other new yellow. This 108- to 110-day late intermediate sweet is currently unnamed, but will be named by the time commercial seed is available in August 2027. Crookham’s testing revealed this new variety is very low in pyruvates and methyl thiosulfinates. And with a lachrymatory factor (LF) of 0.05%, it is not only sweet but virtually tearless.
Crookham’s new early long-day red onion, Tantrum, will have plenty of high-quality seed available in 2026. Tantrum matures in 112 days and features a deep, striking internal and external color, consistent from bulb to bulb, making it perfect for retail.
“Tantrum has high-definition color between rings, all the way to the center, and it colors up upon maturity. So you don’t have to wait for it to color up after harvesting,” Johnson explained.
There are also two new Vidalia varieties that will be available for planting in 2026. Both 4021 and 4022 are early maturing, so growers can start shipping on Vidalia’s pack date. 4022 is a traditional flat-top, but 4021 is a deeper, more rounded bulb that produces more yield per acre.
Growers can visit crookham.com to learn more about these new varieties as well as the company’s established products like Caliber, Defender and Epic. The site includes videos, growing guidelines and other pertinent information to growers, including disease resistance.