Wider choice of new varieties on the way
Wider choice of new varieties on the way
JUST five onion varieties account for 80% of the UKs seeded crop and few new ones have been taken up commercially recently.
But that could soon change as a record number of new types have been trialed by NIAB this year, and most of them have been accepted for trialing again in 2000.
The big five include Spirit for early production, Goldito, Marco, Sherpa, and Hysam.
"Over the past five years there has only been a handful of new ones which have made it commercially," said NIABs Mike Day.
"These include Barito, Bristol, Boston, Friso, and Duetto. But we now have a mass of new ones in trials, 12 of the 16 we saw for the first time in 1999 will be trialed again next year. They offer small but worthwhile improvements."
The most interesting of the new batch is the Peto-bred PX 1001-93 as it represents a significant step forward in earliness. It is ready for lifting four or five days before Spirit, the earliest of the commercially available varieties. It gives good early yields of well protected slightly oval bulbs with few defects. A weakness seems to be susceptibility to downy mildew.
Early maturing types seem particularly vulnerable to the disease, NIAB says. Spirit is very susceptible. In this years trials infection levels on leaves across all varieties ranged from 0 to 20%. Established varieties least troubled by the damaging fungus include Sherpa and Hysam. *