Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The onion fields of Southwest Texas…


Dixondale Farms - Carrizo Springs, TX

While visiting my brother in southern Texas last month, I had an opportunity to drive out to Carrizo Springs in the Rio Grande Valley to visit Dixondale Farms. We were greeted by Bruce Frasier, the owner of Dixondale Farms.

Everything is truly big in Texas, including his 2500 acre farm. It is almost impossible to see from one end to the other. Within this operation are 400 acres of onion transplants and they were impressive. 400 acres of anything is a lot of ground to cover. He was harvesting transplants started in September for shipment in December to the southern parts of the USA. His harvest runs straight through April where onion transplants are delivered to the northern markets.

The raised bed fields were clean as a whistle with a multitude of plant sizes from tiny seedlings to mature transplants. All plants are hand harvested, and one is amazed how fast his field hands pull and bundle the transplants. Plants are pulled in the morning and shipped that very same day.

We sell many of Dixondale’s field grown onion transplants. It is reassuring to know that we are business partners with the biggest and best onion transplant grower in the USA. For more information on our onion transplant program for home gardeners and professional growers, check them out on our web site or find them in either our home garden catalog or professional vegetable growers’ catalogs.