Salladslök – ny lök med mervärde

During recent years pre-packed Asian leafy vegetables been introduced to the Swedish market, and have been a great sale success. Customers demand new products which are fresh, have an attractive appearance, and will need a minimum of preparation before the meal. On the Swedish market there is today a limited assortment of onion products, even though this has increased during recent years. With the increasing interest for food culture of other countries, there should be a potential to increase the use and sales of green onion also in Sweden. The aim of this project has been to develop new onion products of good quality. Cultivation of new varieties of green onion has been tested during different parts of the season, and quality and shelf life have thereafter been investigated, as well as different types of packaging. Further, the aim was also to investigate the result on weed occurrence, yield and quality when green onion was sown directly in the field at a commercial farm. Common practise is to use onion transplants. Different cultivars of green onion (Allium fistulosum) were grown at Torslunda research station, Öland, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. 2008 the cultivars ’Ishikura improved’, ’Summer’, ’Kujo’, ’Red Beard’, and ’White Ishikura’ were sown in mid summer and harvested in autumn. 2009 the cultivars ’Ishikura improved’, ’Summer’, ’Kujo’, ’Red Beard’, ’Evergreen’, ’Fuyuyo’, ’Shandong’, ’Parade’, ’Performer’ and ’Tycoon’ F1 were sown in spring and harvested in the mid summer. Green onion was also sown at a commercial farm 2010, and the cultivars ’Parade’, Totem’, ’Kaigaro’, ’Tycoon’, ’Apache’ and ’Ishikura White’ were used. The differences in emergence and weed occurrence were monitored. The field trials were for both years 2008 and 2009 organised in a randomized three block design. Sowing was made with a sowing machine, and a one-row sowing band, which set limitations for the seed density the year 2008, and with a three-row band 2009. The space between rows was 50 cm. 2010 there was 100-120 seeds per meter. The field trials were fertilized after soil analysis. The trials were harvested manually on October 8th 2008, and July 7th 2009, and the yield per meter was determined. Selected cultivars were packed, and the shelf life during storage monitored. 2010 the trial was harvested after 13 weeks of cultivation. The investigated cultivars of green onion gave different results in emergence, growth and harvest. 2008 ‘Kujo’, followed by ‘White Ishikura’ gave the highest total weight, though the difference was less after unusable parts had been sorted out. After sorting, 52.8 % was left for ’White Ishikura’, 53.1 % for ’Ishikura improved’, 51.3 % for ’Summer’, 48.0 % for ’Kujo’ and 58.8 % for ’Red Beard’. At harvest 2009 the total weight varied between 0.10 and 0.57 kg per meter. ’Ishikura improved’ had the highest yield with 0.42 kg/meter, which was 74.7 % of the total weight. The yield of ’Kujo’ was 0.31 kg/meter and of ’Performer’ 0.35 kg/meter, which was 71.5 % and 74,7 %, respectively, of the total weight.