By Clint Thompson
Vidalia onion industry specialists are optimistic about this year’s crop despite the challenges it encountered during the early part of the production season at Christmas time.
Multiple days of sub-freezing temperatures stymied the growth of plants after they were just put into the ground. It led to some plant stand issues, said Chris Tyson, University of Georgia Extension area onion agent at the Vidalia Onion & Vegetable Research Center in Lyons, Georgia. He discusses this year’s harvest season the producers are currently in.
“We have that injury from the cold back in December, and it thinned out some plant stands. We lost some plants from that. However, the crop that we’re working with, I feel confident about it,” Chris Tyson said. “We’ll just see where it takes us. We still have a long way to go. It’s hard to know what kind of weather we’ll have during harvest.
“We’re hopeful and confident at this point, and we’ll see where it takes us.”
Producers are yearning for hot, dry days, so they can harvest this year’s crop in a timely fashion.
“That’s on everybody’s mind. What kind of harvest weather are we going to be working with this year?” Tyson said. “I don’t have to tell growers this, they know this much better than I do. They know they’ve got to be timely in getting their crop out. That’s going to be on the forefront of their minds the next few weeks. It’s going to be all about harvest and all about getting these onions out of the field and into the shed, getting them graded and put into storage.”