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This thread is all about Dixondale Farms.




Dixondale Farms has been providing onion plants throughout the US for 105 years! Located in south Texas along the Mexico border, we are a family farm operation devoted to serving our customers. Dixondale Farms strives to provide the highest quality onion plants and customer service available. We are available year-round for all your onion plant growing needs.

A Short History of Dixondale Farms
As told by Jeanie Martin Frasier
In the early 1900's, my great-grandfather, John Mabson McClendon, moved his family to Dimmit County from a small Central Texas town called Pancake, TX. He began farming an area north of town called the Dixondale addition in the Wintergarden area. All of us at Dixondale Farms still live in that section of town as neighbors. John's son, Earl, who was 15 at the time, began farming with his father, growing onion transplants and sending them by train to farmers throughout the United States. Earl married Lula Bell, who came from a large old established family here. As you see, our roots run deep in South Texas. They continued farming through the Depression and World War II. They eventually offered the farming business to my father (their son-in-law) after he got out of the Army and graduated from the University of Texas in 1948. Earl remained active in farming and ranching until his death in 1983.

My father, Wallace Martin, continued growing transplants, as well as producing other crops such as cabbage and cauliflower. In 1982, my husband, Bruce Frasier, got out of the Army and began working with Dixondale Farms. It was then that Bruce saw a need to distribute his product to home gardeners. In 1990, UPS started providing delivery service to Carrizo Springs, and we began sending out small quantities of onion plants via UPS and USPS. Today we ship over 800 million onion plants to farmers, home gardeners, and garden centers around the country. We often laugh at the similarities between the past two generations of Dixondale Farms farmers. My father and my husband are both civil engineers by education and farmers by the grace of God. Both came into the business after leaving the Army and the business was handed down from father-in-law to son-in-law. At age 92, my father, Wallace, is still available for his vast onion knowledge and advice.



Ships within US, with restrictions in Oregon and Idaho.

http://www.dixondalefarms.com
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steward
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I give this seed source 9 out of 10 acorns.

Another small family run farm, I've been growing onions from Dixondale in my garden for a number of years now, with good success. Dixondale sells onion plants, not onion sets or seeds. They mostly focus on onions, but they do offer leeks and shallots as well. These fine folks are my go to source for my onion needs.
 
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Location: Mid Missouri north of the Ozarks
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I've used Dixondale for about four years now and I am exceedingly happy with their service and their onions. I have had stunning harvests from the onions year after year. I plant keeper onions--Copra or Superstar--for my area (Mid-Missouri area) and I always do a red onion for variety. The keepers will still be good when I'm tending the next year's onions. I've had decent keepers right into late May. Dixondale is good to send out little onion-growing suggestions from time to time to keep me on track. They are great!
 
pollinator
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If give this source 10 out of 10. I've been buying from them for a long time. They give you plenty of extra plants per bundle. Their varieties grow great on my farm. And whenever I have a problem or question, I can email them and they will help me out. They were a big help when I was trying to learn to grow good onions.
 
steward
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I give this seed source 10 out of 10 acorns.  Our local master gardeners have been using them for years and the onion plants do great.  I'm struggling with just giving up growing my own onions from seed since the Dixondale ones are so much better.
 
gardener
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Add my voice to the chorus.  10 out of 10.  I have at least a dozen years experience with their stock, never had anything but great results.

lots of varieties to choose from, plenty of information on long short and intermediate varieties to help choose which is right.

Storage onions, sweet onions, red onions white onions gold onions

heirloom varieties too, Ailsa Craig, and cippolini (in more than one color).

If you are wondering, the reason I prefer the plants to the little sets is that many times the sets make onions with double centers, the plants don't. The sets have never done as welll for me, I get more than 90 % survival to onion with the plants, and not even half of that with the sets.

And it's been my experience that their bunches are quite generous.  They say  70 plants per bunch.  In addition, there are plenty of plants in the bunch that are thread like and tiny, beyond the 70 plants promosied.  Those thready tiny ones also make onions.

 
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I used to buy onion starts from Dixondale, but the last bunch I bought from them they trimmed the roots off on about 1/3 of them half way up the bulb, I didn't figure they'd survive, but planted them anyway.  They didn't survive.

I now buy starts from a local source, or start them myself when I have time.
 
Thekla McDaniels
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Peter, did you contact them about those onion plants?  I'd be really interested to know what kind of response they give when things do go wrong.
 
master gardener
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I give this onion source 9 out of 10 acorns.

These people do one thing, and they do that one thing really well. Alliums is in this farm's blood. I really appreciate not only the selection of onions but the education gained through navigating their site. My favorite feature is their timing for shipping where they give you their recommendation but allow you to set up shipment for really any week during the planting season. I find the price to be more than fair and found the way they shipped the plants to be to be rather neat with their box of choice. The only reason I knocked off an acorn is that the site and the instructions they ship with the onions recommends more traditional ways of farming that would not be up to Permie standards. I'd rather use well finished compost anyway!

I have grown my first season worth of Dixondale starts successfully. I appreciate that they offer a sampler so you can get a variety of onions in one shipment. They really grow out well, I don't think I had hardly any loss from transplanting. I have ordered again for my second season.

I would recommend this onion source to everyone. I learned about this source from the Permies Seed and Plant Source Review Grid.
 
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