Varieties of Onions

 luv2garden.com  - Abigal Gordon's Gardens ®

Growing Onions     Onion Recipes

 

 

 

 

Varieties of Onions

Varieties of Onions
For Marketing & Culinary purposes Onions are generally categorized into the following

WHITE ONIONS: Glossy white appearance. One of the more pungent onions. Use raw on burgers, sandwiches, salsa and similar dishes if you like warm, but real tasty onions. Otherwise, they can be used in any recipe that calls for cooked onions.

YELLOW ONIONS: Golden color with relatively strong flavor. May be used cooked or raw, depending on your taste for a somewhat pungent onion. Long, slow sautéing at very low heat brings out sweet, mellow flavors.

RED ONIONS: Purplish rather than red, they are relatively mild. Appealing in salads or sautéed in stir fries. Also good for many other recipes. Adding a bit of vinegar, wine or lemon juice helps keep color from fading or turning purplish-blue. You'll often find red onions in salads at restaurants.

SHALLOT: This is not a true onion, it is a small relative of the onion with dry, coppery skin. The flavor combines onions and garlic. Hot when raw, but cooks to a delicate flavor.

SCALLIONS: This is a variety of onions that is harvested before the bulb has formed. Mild flavor. Green onions have tiny white bulbs at the bottom while scallions are younger and have straight white sides at the root end.

LEEKS: In the scallion family. It looks like a large, fat scallion with a white root and dark green, overlapping leaves. Only the root is used. Careful trimming and cleaning are necessary because dirt can accumulate in leaves.  Leeks are not true Onions as per many "experts', but in my book if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and tastes like a duck - it's a Duck. Or an Onion as the case may be.

Varieties of Onions
For Growers Purposes

Onions are generally categorized by how much daylight they need to form a bulb. Onions form a top first , later, depending on the type of onion variety and daylight hours they begin to form the bulb / Onion. Onions are grouped by day length; "long-day" onions stop forming tops and begin to form the bulbs when the daylight hours or "daylength" reaches 14 to 16 hours . "Short-day" onion varieties will start forming bulbs earlier in the season at 10 to 12 hours of daylight. Long-day onion varieties generally fare better in northern regions , while "short-day" onion varieties will do better in southern states .

Short Day Varieties of Onions

Baby Onions also known as Pearl Onions are generally a variety of tree onion, often used for pickling or as cocktail onions. They are used in many different recipes. They have a sweet, mild flavor and attractive, petite size. Other types of White Onions can be used as Pearl Onions by encouraging different varieties to grow small . They can be planted very close to one another so that they never reach their full volume or they can be harvested when still small. Short day varieties can be grown in Northern regions and used as pearl onions .

White Bermuda, Barletta (also called White Pearl), White Mexican are common short-day varieties that are used in Northern areas to produce Pearl Onions , cocktail onions, baby onions.

Candy Hybrid  is relatively easy to grow. Jumbo size onions are incredibly sweet and mild.

White Granex - Suited for warmer climates, produces medium to large onion that are white inside and out ready  Not a storage onion. Highly tolerant to Pink Root.   Very sweet , very mild, Also known as Vidalia Onions, for the region in Georgia, which produces very sweet onions, features flattened bulbs with light yellow skin, bulbs average 3/4 pound, r. Early-maturing , recommended for southern growers. Does not store well.  {Maui, Noonday are variations of Yellow Granex}


Red Burgundy Onions 3-4" bulbs, covered in dark red skin with white flesh with red rings. Short shelf life makes it good for the backyard gardener who doesn't have need to store them. Resistant to Pink Root.

Intermediate Day Varieties of Onions

Organic Falltime Leek
long, tender. Delicious shanks grow up to 3 ft. long. Considered a summer leek, it will not winter well in hard-freezing climates.


Red Amposta sweet flavor, making it a favorite in many gardens. It produces large bulbs with great flavor and they mature in 115 days.

Long Day Varieties of Onions

Yellow Sweet Spanish probably the most common onion you’ll see in the grocery store. The mildly sharp flavor does not overpower but melds well in all recipes.

Walla Walla Walla Walla Onion Plant is so-called because it hails from an area of Washington State known as Walla Walla.  Southern growers will fare better with a hybrid simile known as Candy Hybrid

White Sweet Spanish White Sweet Spanish Onion Plant is a variation on the Yellow Sweet Spanish variety and is most popular for use in Mexican cuisine

Copra Onion The Copra Onion Plant is the best long-storage onion for the northern parts of the country. Its sweet flavor is slightly pungent

 

This list is far from extensive, it is simply some of the more popular varieties.  There are a myriad of varieties to suit varying requirements scan through the online nurseries for further ideas.