Seeds Information

Foundation Onion and Pepper Seed

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Allocation of Foundations seed to out-of-state growers may be made through the Foundation seed stock reorganization of the respective state.

The basic guideline for allocation and distribution of Foundation seed will be as stated as follows:

  • Supply of seed available and the number and amount of requests.
  • Area of adaptation
  • Recommended planting rates.
  • Recommendation of local associations.
  • Foundation seed may be sold to specific growers and/or areas when there is a definite need for greater seed increase of high quality seed.
  • Late applications may be refused.

Onion Foundation Seed

  • NuMex Freedom - Originates from a 1988 intercross between yellow grano and sweet spanish type numex sunlite. Low pungency. Suggested planting date in southern New Mexico Oct 1 for fall and Feb for spring. 8 lbs available.

  • NuMex Luna - Developed from a cross between numex br1 and ben shemen. Planting Oct 1. Firm tough bulbs, rounded, large bulbs. (6 lbs available).

  • NuMex Starlite - Plant Sept 25, June 1. Low pungency, large tops. Makes large bulbs. Excellent for transplants. One of the highest yielding of the grano types. Excellent tolerance to pink root. (10 lbs available).

  • NuMex Sweetpak - Originates from a population derived from intercrossing in a cage Texas Grano 1015Y, Excel 986B, and Texas Grano 502PRR bolting resistant selection. 'NuMex Sweetpak' is a short-day, grano-type onion that matures from May 25 to May 30 when fall seeded in Las Cruces, NM. Suggested planting dates at Las Cruces are October 1 to October 10. 'NuMex Sweetpak' has excellent yield, firmness, pink root resistance, and early maturity, similar to 'NuMex Sunlite'. Bulbs have lower pungency than 'NuMex Sunlite' does. The average pungency for 'NuMex Sweetpak' was 4.34 (moles pyruvic acid/gfw) compared to 5.35 for 'NuMex Sunlite'. 'NuMex Sweetpak' matures about 10 days earlier than 'NuMex Dulce', a low pungency variety released in 1995. 'NuMex Sweetpak' is recommended for fall-seeding to provide a harvest of low pungency (sweet) onions during late May.

  • NuMex Luna - Developed by Professor Joe Corgan of the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. They were developed form a cross between NuMex BR1 and bolting resistant selections from Ben Shemen. NuMex BR1 was released by the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station in 1981. It is a bolting-resistant grano-type variety with a medium level of pink root resistance. Ben Shaman is an intermediate-maturing variety originated in Israel from a selection known as Riverside, thought to be a selection from Yellow Sweet Spanish. Reciprocal crosses were made in 1984, and the F1 plants were intercrossed in 1986. Seeds were collected separately from the reciprocal populations and bulbs were selected in 1987. Selected bulbs were intercrossed in 1988. In 1989, two bulb selections were made, based on maturity. The bulbs selected for early maturity were intercrossed to produce a population from which NuMex Vado was selected. The bulbs selected for late maturity were intercrossed to produce a population from which NuMex Vado was selected. Selections were made again in 1991, resulting in seed sources 9270 (NuMex Vado) and 9229 (NuMex Luna). With each intercross, seeds were collected separately from the reciprocal populations. For the 1992 intercross, seeds were collected only from the population originating from the Ben Shemen parent, and both varieties are therefore 'N' cytoplasm. The frequency of nuclear ms genes, if any, is unknown. (Above picture is of NuMex Vado (99). Below is a picture of NuMex Luna (98).)

The price of the seed is all $400.00/lb.

Chile Pepper Foundation Seed

NuMex Garnet: NuMex Garnet is a high yielding, high dry matter paprika chile. The cost is $25.00 per pound.