In the summer months, southern New Mexico onion growers satisfy about 60 percent of the nation's appetite for onions. Supplies peak in early June and July as fall-planted onions mature.

Unlike onions grown in northern states, which are stored over the winter, New Mexico's crop goes straight to stores, mostly in southern and eastern states. New Mexico's onions are sold as fresh-market onions, but a portion of the crop is also used for onion rings and frozen products.

Growers like Joe Nelson of Anthony use a number of varieties, both seeded and transplanted, to stretch the season and marketing window. "Probably 90 percent of the onions I grow are from varieties released by New Mexico State University," Nelson says. "They have a wide range of early to late-maturing varieties, as well as several sweet onion varieties. They're excellent growing onions and excellent eating onions." Nelson is especially pleased with NuMex Luna, a yellow onion from NMSU that helps fill the market gap created as fall-planted onion harvest tapers off and spring-planted varieties mature.
Chris Cramer, onion breeder with NMSU's Agricultural Experiment Station, is working to fill the need for onion varieties that can be harvested at different times to help New Mexico growers compete. He is developing varieties that are suited to the growing conditions of southern New Mexico. So far, the breeding program has released 15 different cultivars and a breeding line and is working on several others.

At NMSU's Fabian Garcia Research Center in Las Cruces, Cramer has more than 600 mesh-covered cages of various sizes to isolate breeding stock. In fields nearby, the most promising varieties are grown to see which will perform best. In 60-square-foot enclosures, NMSU produces a supply of foundation seed to keep varieties true to type and make continual improvements in each line.

"NMSU is working on releasing a number of varieties that will give the grower continuous varieties from late May all the way through August," Cramer says.

It's a job that requires considerable patience. A biennial crop, onions form a bulb in their first year of growth and send up a flowering stalk the second year, when seed can be harvested for breeding.

"To develop an open-pollinated variety takes eight to 15 years from the time the cross is made until the variety is actually released," Cramer says. "We're also working on developing hybrids, which can take up to 15 years of work."

Different varieties offer special traits, such as being perfect for onion rings, as well as desirable characteristics such as bulb quality and disease resistance. Since onions in southern New Mexico are planted in the fall and harvested in the spring, cold hardiness is very important. This allows the onions to grow and mature in the colder winter months.

Another priority for NMSU researchers is adding to their sweet onion offerings. Though they aren't as well known as Georgia's Vidalias, New Mexico sweet onions can hold their own in quality with any other sweet onion on the market. The state's sunny, clear days produce large, high-quality bulbs that mature beginning in late May and continuing through August.
Three varieties of NMSU-developed sweet onions-NuMex Starlite, NuMex Dulce and NuMex Sweetpak-are sold under the NuMex Sweet label. They were first worked on by Joe Corgan, retired NMSU onion breeder. He improved the varieties for horticultural traits such as yield, size, shape and disease resistance.

Another contributor to New Mexico sweet onions is Marisa Wall, an NMSU researcher who developed a laboratory test to evaluate onion bulbs for flavor. The test helps the researchers select the mildest (sweetest) onions quickly and easily.

To get consumers clamoring for the sweet onions, the state's onion commission launched a marketing campaign, complete with a distinctive NuMex Sweet box and tiny turquoise and red stickers to label each onion.

"Normally, our onions have the same low pungency as other sweet onions from Georgia or South Texas or California," Cramer says. "Our onions usually are larger, have better quality and fewer disease problems, and usually reach the market in better shape than those from other places."
During the May through August harvest season, New Mexico is the largest national supplier of onions. Finding sweet New Mexico onions can be more difficult the rest of the year.

Although onions are a risky, labor-intensive crop, they can be very profitable for growers. More varieties and better marketing can only enhance the value of New Mexico's onion crop. Valued at $52 million in 1997, onions were the state's third-most valuable crop that year, behind alfalfa and chile.

In a 10-year study, onions beat out both chile and alfalfa as the state's most profitable crop. Onions, like chile, are a risky crop, and prices fluctuate greatly from year to year. "The crop that has the most risk should have the most return, just like risky stocks should have better returns in the market," says Jim Libbin, agricultural economist with NMSU.

More information about the research and development of NMSU's onion breedingprogram can be found on the World Wide Web at http://soil-physics.nmsu.edu/onion/