By Clint Thompson
Increased rainfall during December and January is placing added pressure on producers trying to prepare for their spring plantings. If conditions stay saturated, growers will be unable to complete time-sensitive tasks, says Ty Torrance, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable agent for Colquitt, Tift and Worth counties.
“I spoke with a couple of different growers (last Wednesday) morning, and it seemed like what was in the field; collards, cabbage, kale, mustard, around the Tifton area at least, made it without too much damage,” said Torrance following a recent storm, “I know it’s blown tops off some of greenhouses, and just the ground staying saturated, it’s going to begin to delay everybody laying new plastic for the spring, getting the fields ready.
“I know of at least a couple of larger growers that haven’t even started yet. You can never tell how long it’s going to stay in this trend of rainy weather. It could really set them back if it continues to rain. Most of our warm-season spring crops, March 15 is kind of the target date.”
Recent Rainfall
According to the UGA Weather Network, Tifton, Georgia, received 9.58 inches of rain from Dec. 1 to Jan. 15, three times as much as what was recorded last season (3.04).
Producers, like Bill Brim with Lewis Taylor Farms in Tifton, use this time to lay plastic to prepare for spring planting season for crops like watermelon, cantaloupe and tomatoes.
“We’re hoping we get a break here or there. We did lay a little bit of plastic (recently), probably about 100 acres, but we’ve still got a long way to go,” Brim said. “It’s the most timely thing, because our fumigant, we’ve got to keep it out about 21 days, so we don’t hurt our plants. We keep messing around and keep messing around, we’re going to run out of time and put ourselves in a corner.”