By Clint Thompson
Harvest season is well underway for Georgia’s Vidalia onion crop. Vidalia onion producers encountered numerous weather challenges this year leading up to harvest season.
Shane Curry, executive director of the Vidalia Onion Committee, discussed those challenges, which included Hurricane Helene last fall and the historic snowfall in January.
“Everything looks good as of right now. We were faced with some very challenging weather patterns between the hurricane in the fall and six inches of snow. We had a lot of extremes in weather,” Curry said. “Fortunately, we’re very blessed with the way the crop has turned out so far. It’s not often we get six inches of snow, so there were a lot of unknowns when that was going on.”
About 10,000 acres of Vidalia onions were planted this year. All were impacted by the unexpected snow and cold weather in late January. Fortunately, it appears the snow was a blessing in disguise in protecting the onion plants.
“If it gets cold enough you can kill an onion plant. That was one of the primary things, looking at weather. The snow hung around long enough to where, actually, it acted as a blanket,” Curry said. “It kept that bulb at the ground and below ground, it kept it at 32 (degrees) or above. If we start getting into the teens as far as weather temperature, that’s when it starts getting pretty detrimental.”