# The US onion calendar: who ships when > The US onion market runs on an origin relay: the Northwest storage crop out of Idaho-Eastern Oregon carries the country from late summer through spring, then Texas, California, New Mexico and Georgia take over for the summer before storage onions come back around. Most onion price action is really the story of which origin is handing off to which. _Updated Jul 10, 2026._ The US onion market is a relay of growing regions handing the season off one to the next, and the calendar is the single most useful thing to understand about it. The Northwest storage crop carries the country through the cold months. The spring and summer belong to the South and West. Imports fill the gaps. Almost every big price move traces back to where one origin is quitting and another is starting. ## Fall and winter: the Northwest storage crop From late summer into spring, the country runs on storage onions, and Idaho-Eastern Oregon is the anchor. The Treasure Valley crop is harvested in late summer, cured and put into storage, then shipped out steadily from roughly August through April. Washington's Columbia Basin runs on nearly the same clock. Colorado, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and Utah add regional storage supply through the same window. These are yellow-heavy, they hold for months and they are the national inventory the whole market draws down through winter. ## Spring: Texas and the desert start the new crop The new crop breaks in the South. South Texas opens first, with the Lower Rio Grande Valley shipping from around March into June, and it is the arrival everyone watches because it signals the domestic season turning over. Texas is sweet-onion country too: the Texas 1015, named for its ideal October 15 planting date and bred at Texas A&M, is the state's signature sweet. California's Imperial Valley desert crop comes in close behind, with New Mexico following into early summer. This is the handoff that ends the storage-onion market for the year. ## Late spring and summer: Vidalia, California, New Mexico Georgia's Vidalia is the famous spring sweet, and it is a legally defined onion. Federal Marketing Order 955 limits the Vidalia name to a 20-county area of south Georgia, and each year the state agriculture commissioner sets an official pack date, the earliest the crop can legally ship, based on the growing conditions. Recent seasons have started in mid-April and run into the summer. Alongside it, California's San Joaquin Valley and New Mexico carry the summer with big yellow, red and white volume, roughly through September, until the Northwest storage crop is harvested and the relay comes back around. ## Imports bridge the gaps Onions cross the border year-round to fill in. Mexican onions ship through south Texas mostly from winter into summer, heaviest in late winter and spring. Peruvian sweets arrive through East Coast ports from late summer into spring, mirroring the domestic storage season on the sweet side. Canadian storage onions cross in the North more or less all year. When a domestic origin is thin, imports are the relief valve on price. ## Worked example: read the board through the calendar [Table: The weekly onion board](https://knowyouronions.news/board/weekly-movers) ([data](https://knowyouronions.news/board/weekly-movers.md)) Take the board above and read it as a calendar. The origins moving on it are the ones shipping right now, at this point in the relay. In spring you will see Texas and the desert entering while the Northwest winds down. In deep winter it is Northwest storage and imports. The biggest moves usually cluster around a handoff, when one origin's quotes are firming as another's fade. Match the names on the board to the season and the market stops looking like noise and starts looking like a schedule. Know Your Onions reports each origin's prices as USDA publishes them. Exact start dates shift year to year with the weather, so we read them off the live quotes rather than forecasting a transition before it shows up. ## Related data + guides - [Idaho-Eastern Oregon prices](https://knowyouronions.news/origin/idaho-eastern-oregon) - [Texas prices](https://knowyouronions.news/origin/texas) - [Georgia (Vidalia) prices](https://knowyouronions.news/origin/georgia) - [Storage onions vs fresh-market onions](https://knowyouronions.news/guides/storage-onions-vs-fresh-market) - [The weekly onion board](https://knowyouronions.news/board) ## Common questions ### Where do most US onions come from? The Northwest, above all Idaho-Eastern Oregon's Treasure Valley and Washington's Columbia Basin, which grow the storage crop that supplies the country from late summer through spring. Texas, California, New Mexico and Georgia carry the spring and summer. ### What months are onions in season by region? Idaho-Eastern Oregon and the other Northwest storage regions ship roughly August through April. Texas runs about March through June, California and New Mexico through the summer, and Georgia's Vidalia from mid-spring into summer. ### When is Vidalia onion season? Vidalia onions ship under federal Marketing Order 955, which limits the name to 20 counties in south Georgia. The Georgia agriculture commissioner sets an official pack date each year based on growing conditions. Recent seasons have started in mid-April and run into the summer. ### Why do onion prices change between seasons? Because the market hands off between growing regions through the year. Prices tend to move most during a transition, when one origin's supply is running out and the next is just starting, which is when supply is tightest. --- Canonical URL: https://knowyouronions.news/guides/the-onion-calendar