By Clint Thompson
Warmer temperatures for Southeast Georgia are just what the doctor ordered for Vidalia onion plants still recovering from the recent freeze event.
Cliff Riner, crop production manager for G&R Farms in Glennville, Georgia, said the crop’s progress was delayed by the sub-freezing temperatures on March 13.
“One or two bad days of cold weather like that takes about a week of growth out of them. They still have the potential to grow, but it’s more of a setback, especially later in the season,” Riner said. “Now we need sunlight. They’ll start back growing and that’ll help them reach towards the sky and look better and continue to grow.
“When you get a frost later in the season like we just experienced, it flattens them down and makes them droopy looking. Say if they were growing at 80 mph, it’s almost like the engine shut off and now we’ve got to get back up to speed.”
Producers are on the verge of beginning to harvest this year’s crop. Riner estimates that he will start plowing up some onions this week, though most of the crop will not be ready for harvest until early April.
“Overall, it’s in good shape. We had this cold weather come through. The potential of the crop before that was really good. Everybody was happy with the way the crop had developed, and the size of the foliage looked to be a promising crop. I still think we have that,” Riner said. “It’s just going to take some time to regroup from this wind and cold injury that happened.”
