Onions are one of the most important vegetable crops in New York State with annual sales of approximately $52 million. New York accounts for 97% of the onion production in the North Eastern United States and ranks sixth in the nation. Approximately 12,000 acres of yellow pungent cooking onions are grown from direct seed, predominantly on organically rich muck soils. This crop is stored and marketed until April. Sweet and red varieties are also grown, mostly from transplants. Hundreds of small-scale diversified farms grow onions intensively on plastic beds on less than an acre. These onions can grow very large and be lucrative in the market place where they are sold through produce auctions, farmer's markets, roadside stands and CSAs.

Continued intensive production of onions in New York has led to an array of perennial pest challenges, as well as the introduction of new pests, so that management of the onion complex in New York requires a very strategic research-based approach. Cornell Cooperative Educators and Cornell faculty work together to conduct research on many aspects of onion production in the state. Below you will find educational information and results of our research trials.


More Onions Content

CANCELLED: Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) / Harmonized GAPs Farm Food Safety Training

September 26 - September 27, 2017
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Salamanca, NY

This event has been cancelled due to low registration numbers. Farm food safety is common-sense practices organized to assist farmers to improve their skill set to continue to grow safe and healthy food.

Day One of this training will be an educational training on farm food safety principles and practices to provide the background and information for farmers to understand how to minimize the risk of food born disease contamination. Day Two will be for those who want help with writing a farm food safety plan.

Pickle Variety Twilight Meeting

September 26, 2017
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Ransomville, NY

Vegetable growers are invited to tour an on-farm plot of early generation Cornell downy mildew resistant pickle breeding lines. Dr. Michael Mazourek, Professor of Plant Breeding, and lab members, will be on site to walk growers through the plot and review plant selections. All growers that attend will be an integral part of helping make selections for the next generation of pickle varieties released!

Season Extension - Stretching Tomato Season and Winter Greens

October 4, 2017
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Allegany, NY

What do you need to do to stretch out your high tunnel tomato season or establish a profitable crop of winter greens? Meeting the full season's nutritional demands of tomatoes under organic management is challenging. Juggling diverse succession crops and keeping the tunnel profitable year round adds an extra level of difficulty. 

Produce Donations for Hurricane Relief

The ENY Commercial Horticulture Program is leading an effort to collect pallets of produce to send down to TX and FL for hurricane relief. Feeding American is handling the transportation. "Hard" crops accepted:

• apples
• onions
• cabbage
• potatoes
• winter squash
• any other crop that withstand no refrigeration for a week

Empire State Producers EXPO Proceedings Available

Proceedings from the Empire State Producers EXPO conference from 2011-2017 are available online.