Pukehohe Long Keeper Onion

[richardw]

A photo of the best examples of each of the four different onion grown this summer,very pleased with the size everything grew to this summer.

12.00 - Pukehohe Long Keeper white,grew 25kgs of which all will go for eating as i currently have a small block flowering ATM,plan to grow a greater number at least 200-300 next summer.

3.00 - Pukehohe Long Keeper red - ended up with 50kgs of which about half are of good enough quality to go into 18 month storage,what ever makes it that all will be used for breeding summer 2015-16,18 onions that had darker red skins than the rest have been separated off and will be planted back out for seed 2014-15.

6.00 - Tree onions

9.00 - Amuri red - from three spring sown bulbils

[flowerweaver]

Those Pukehohe Long Keepers are gorgeous-love the blushed look of them! Doubt if there are any US sources. Do they every set seed?

[richardw]

Feb 4, 2014 13:36:04 GMT -5 flowerweaver said:

Do they every set seed?

Sorry ,dont quite understand the question.

[flowerweaver]

Sorry about that, it should say ever set seed. Do the Pukehohe, if left to flower, make true seed?

[richardw]

Feb 4, 2014 14:35:49 GMT -5 flowerweaver said:

Sorry about that, it should say ever set seed. Do the Pukehohe, if left to flower, make true seed?

Yes just like a normal onion,the Amuri red and tree onions dont

[templeton]

They look great, Richard.
Pukehohe (or Pukekohe) are only brown, here, I think.
Yates NZ have seed www.yates.co.nz/products/seeds/vegetables/onion-pukekohe-longkeeper/

and an interesting story re the rediscovery of old genetic material here <http://www.onionsaustralia.org.au/research-database-docs/OA%20Vol%2019%20antique%20seed.pdf>
Your red line probably came from the old original material, perhaps, Richard.

[richardw]

Feb 4, 2014 16:56:55 GMT -5 templeton said:

They look great, Richard.
Pukehohe (or Pukekohe) are only brown, here, I think.
Yates NZ have seed www.yates.co.nz/products/seeds/vegetables/onion-pukekohe-longkeeper/

and an interesting story re the rediscovery of old genetic material here <http://www.onionsaustralia.org.au/research-database-docs/OA%20Vol%2019%20antique%20seed.pdf>
Your red line probably came from the old original material, perhaps, Richard.

Yes Pukekohe is spelt with a 'k'. and yes its the old material,the problem with the seed growers of the new strain is they dont select for keeping abilities any more which is what i'm planing on doing again

[blackox]

A good-sized harvest of some nice looking onions, well done!

[philagardener]

richardw , those are beautiful onions! 18 months storage sounds amazing to me. Is that in a root cellar?

[richardw]

I'll just hang in the shed,i suspect i'll loose a few in that time but at least ive got plenty to start with.

[oxbowfarm]

So, those Pukehohe Long Keeper Reds are expected to keep for 18 months? What storage conditions?

I don't think we have any commercially available storage onions that are recommended to store that long. That would be a very fun but long term project, breeding/maintaining a super long storage onion crop.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I've been working on long keeping onions also. Most years I kept the onions for 8 months between harvest and planting. This year I kept some back for a second year. They lasted about 16 months before they started getting soft. It's been 18 months now, and they are still alive, but I wouldn't eat them like this. The ground here is still frozen much too hard to be planting anything, so I stuck them in a pot a couple days ago.

Storage conditions were not anything special: One laid on the porch all last summer. One was on a shelf in the seed room. They spent this winter in the seed room, and the previous winter in a box in the garage.

[steev]

Front porch storage worked fine for that Minnie's Apache Hubbard squash I had (apart from pigeons crapping on it and my land-lady crapping on me about it).

Really; isn't fancy, controlled-atmosphere storage beside the point? What if I just want to stick what I can grow in a closet and still want to eat it in six months?

[richardw]

Feb 4, 2014 22:09:36 GMT -5 oxbowfarm said:

So, those Pukehohe Long Keeper Reds are expected to keep for 18 months? What storage conditions?

I don't think we have any commercially available storage onions that are recommended to store that long. That would be a very fun but long term project, breeding/maintaining a super long storage onion crop.

Its the first time ive grown the red so i dont how well it will keep in comparison to the old strain Pukekohe Long Keeper white which is capable of lasting that long,seeing that reds dont normally last that long when compared to white onions so if i can get some to keep 16-18 months i believe Pukekohe Long Keeper Red will be a real treasure.

T - have you come across any info on what's different between the old and new strain of Pukekohe Long Keeper white

[templeton]

Richard, just the info that was in that link I posted, <http://www.onionsaustralia.org.au/research-database-docs/OA%20Vol%2019%20antique%20seed.pdf>