Cooperative Extension Service
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
The University of Georgia

Volume 6/Number 8
August, 2002

George Boyhan, Extension Horticulturist-Vegetables
East Georgia Extension Center
Rosenwald Building, Third Floor
PO Box 8112
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460
912-681-5639 | 912-681-0376, Fax | 912-682-3481, mobile

Georgia Department of Agriculture Adopts New Varieties

Last year the Georgia Department of Agriculture accepted only two of the five varieties the Dean recommended. They were PS 7092 and DPS 1032. Varieties that were not accepted but were recommended iincluded Sweet Advantage (1058), WI-3115 and WI-609.

This year the committee recommended four additional varieties: DPS 1033, DPS 1024, Nirvana (RCS 1027) and EX 075 92000 (Century). The department proposed and has accepted the three from last year and the four from this year, bringing the total number of varieties accepted to 24. It should be noted, however, that four of the varieties on the list are no longer produced.

Sweet Advantage, WI-3115 and WI-609 are early varieties with WI-3115 and WI-609 having the Japanese overwintering heritage. Nirvana is an early to mid-season onion and DPS 1033, DPS 1024 and Century are late season varieties.

The current list of approved varieties includes:

Translucent Scale and Botrytis Neck Rot of Onion

Over the years, there has been an occasional problem with translucent scale. This can be caused in the outer scales of onions by cold injury, but this phenomenon also occurs within the onion. It has always been associated with high temperatures during harvest and perhaps a delay before cold storage. In the literature, there has also been an association between translucent scale and high levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Dr. Al Purvis has conducted a small experiment this summer that may have a far-reaching impact on controlled atmosphere storage of onions. In 5-gallon buckets, he stored onions under both ambient air and high CO₂ conditions (10 percent CO₂) in refrigeration.

One hundred percent of the onions with the high CO₂ developed translucent scale while those in ambient air did not develop this condition. Looking back at the conditions associated with translucent scale, this makes sense. High temperatures would cause high respiration rates, which in turn would cause a buildup of CO₂. Some growers have experienced this in sealed refrigerated rooms without CA condition where, again, respiration would cause a buildup of CO₂. At this time, it is recommended that growers monitor their storage rooms even if not under CA conditions to ensure that high CO₂ levels don't develop. Current recommendations for CA are 3 percent oxygen (O₂) and 5 percent CO₂>.

An interesting side note to this experiment is that those onions stored at high CO₂ DID NOT develop Botyrtis neck rot. This may have far-reaching implications for this perennial problem. It may be possible to hold onions for a short period of time under high CO₂ conditions to kill the fungus and then bring the room down to normal CA storage conditions to prevent the development of translucent scale.

The phenomenon may just be fungistatic and not fungicidal; therefore, more research is required before recommendations can be made. This could be a real breakthrough in the control of this disease, which can cause millions of dollars in lost onions to growers.

Watermelon Variety Trial Results

Below are the watermelon variety trial results for this year. We conducted a large trial at the Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center and a smaller trial in Crisp County. We have changed the information we gathered this year for the main trial. Included is a rating of the flesh color. This 1-5 scale rating, with 5 being the best, gives an assessment of the quality of the interior of the melon regardless of the color. Also, we weighed the each fruit individually so we have a good idea of what weight classes the fruit fall into for a particular variety.

The results indicated that two out of the five top performers this year are seedless. These varieties continue to make headway in Georgia production. Finally, don't be alarmed by the notes listed. These just indicate that at least one melon had the mentioned characteristic, not that the variety overall had the problem. Overall, this year did have more hollow heart than in the past, which we attribute to heavy rains a week to 10 days before harvest.

Table 2. Watermelon Variety Trial, 2002; Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center
Entry	Company	Description	Yield (lbs/A)	10 lbs	>1020 lbs	>2030 lbs	>30 lbs	Flesh color	Flesh Color Rating	Fruit Length (in)	Width (in)	Rind Thickness (in)	Fruit Type	Soluble Solids	Notes
RWM 8074-VP	Rogers	Allsweet seeded	69,395	1	38	49	12	Red	3.6	15.9	8.8	0.7	Allsweet	10.1	Hollow heart
#5031	Seminis	Triploid	60,450	9	74	17	1	Red/Pink	2.9	11.7	8.7	0.9	Crimson Sweet/ Allsweet	10.0	Streaky
Celebration	Rogers	All sweet seeded, RWM 8052-VP	59,369	1	58	37	4	Red	3.1	12.3	8.8	0.9	Allsweet	10.8	Hollow heart, unripe, blocky
Carnival	Rogers	Hybrid seeded, RXW 118-VP	56,519	4	47	42	8	Red	3.5	14.7	9.6	0.7	Jubilee	10.8	-
Sugar Slice	Willhite	Triploid	54,319	11	78	10	1	Red	3.1	10.1	9.1	1.0	Crimson Sweet	11.3	Unripe, hollow heart
Jamboree	Rogers	Allsweet seeded RWM 8036	53,495	1	38	55	5	Red	3.0	15.7	8.0	0.8	Allsweet	10.4	Underripe
Ole'	Willhite	Hybrid	52,189	0	49	39	12	Red	3.6	15.3	9.1	0.8	Allsweet	11.4	Hollow heart, streaky
AU-Producer-98	Auburn U	Diploid Crimson Sweet	52,069	6	42	40	12	Red/Pink	3.3	11.1	9.8	0.8	Crimson Sweet	9.9	Streaky, underripe
#7167	abbott&cobb	Super Seedless/ Hybrid Triploid	51,659	22	78	0	0	Red	2.6	9.9	8.4	0.8	Crimson Sweet	10.7	Seedy
WX255	Willhite	Hybrid	51,593	13	71	16	0	Red/Pink	3.3	12.8	8.7	0.8	Allsweet	9.3	Hollow heart, streaky
Montreal	Sunseed	Diploid	49,357	8	49	43	0	Pink/Red	2.3	13.6	9.4	1.0	Allsweet	11.0	Hollow heart, underripe
Tri-X 313	Rogers	Red Seedless	48,609	12	64	24	0	Red/Pink	2.6	11.2	8.8	0.9	Small Allsweet/ Crimson Sweet	10.6	Hollow heart, 2 off types, underripe
AU-3	Auburn U	ZYMV resistant	47,045	7	49	38	6	Pink/Red	2.2	11.5	11.0	0.9	Crimson Sweet	10.3	Hollow heart, streaky, yellow
Piinata	Willhite	Hybrid	46,457	3	44	42	11	Red/Pink	2.6	14.5	9.1	0.8	Allsweet/ Jubilee	10.6	Hollow heart, streaky
Revolution	Sunseed	Diploid	45,890	11	71	18	0	Red/Pink	2.7	10.9	8.1	0.8	Blocky Crimson Sweet	11.3	Underripe
WX207	Willhite	Hybrid	45,440	6	42	47	5	Red/Pink	3.1	16.2	8.9	0.8	Jubilee	11.4	Underripe, 1 off type, streaky
#7177 HQ	abbot&cobb	Super Seedless HQ/ Hybrid Triploid	44,235	3	79	15	3	Pink/Red	2.3	10.8	9.0	0.9	Crimson Sweet	10.4	Hollow heart, streaky, blocky
Tri-X Brand Palomar	Rogers	Red Seedless	43,829	32	66	2	0	Red	3.1	9.0	9.1	0.9	Small Crimson Sweet	11.1	Hollow heart
Cooperstown	Seminis	Triploid	43,640	11	81	7	0	Pink/Red	2.7	10.5	8.9	0.8	Crimson Sweet	11.3	Unripe, hollow heart, blocky, underripe
Sweet Slice	Willhite	Triploid	42,732	6	92	1	1	Red/Pink	2.8	10.2	8.9	0.9	Crimson Sweet	11.3	Seedy, underripe
RWT 8096-VP	Rogers	Red Seedless	42,239	7	75	18	0	Red/Pink	2.6	10.7	8.9	1.0	Crimson Sweet	11.2	Seedless, underripe, hollow heart
#7187 HQ	abbot&cobb	Super Seedless HQ/ Hybrid Triploid	41,730	11	81	8	0	Pink/Red	2.6	10.5	9.0	1.0	Crimson Sweet	10.4	Underripe, gray melon, hollow heart
Festival	Willhite	Hybrid	40,881	3	48	47	2	Red	3.3	15.2	9.1	0.8	Allsweet	10.7	Hollow heart, streaky
AU-Allsweet-BL	Auburn U	Diploid Allsweet	40,616	4	44	51	2	Pink	1.6	14.2	8.9	1.0	Allsweet	10.1	Underripe, streaky, hollow heart
Gold Strike	Willhite	Hybrid	39,977	7	75	18	0	Yellow	3.6	12.8	8.8	0.7	Allsweet	11.3	Hollow heart
#5244	abbott&cobb	Summer Sweet/ Hybrid Triploid	38,917	15	80	5	0	Red/Pink	3.0	10.8	8.5	0.9	Crimson Sweet	11.6	Hollow heart
Dulce	Willhite	Hybrid	36,496	4	43	47	6	Red/Pink	3.0	15.9	8.9	1.0	Allsweet	11.0	Yellow streaks, hollow heart, streaky, seedy
Seedless Sangria	Rogers	Allsweet Seedless, RWT 8108-VP	34,354	2	51	44	2	Red	2.2	13.9	8.3	0.9	Allsweet/ Jubilee	9.9	Seedless, hollow heart
Rojo Grande	Willhite	Hybrid	34,235	0	43	54	2	Red/Pink	3.7	15.8	8.4	0.9	Allsweet	11.1	Hollow heart, streaky
Imagination	Rogers	Red Seedless, RWT 8089-VP	27,530	49	51	0	0	Red	3.3	8.3	8.5	0.9	Icebox	11.3	Bacterial Rind Necrosis
#1075	Seminis	Triploid	26,612	7	76	17	0	Red	2.5	10.5	9.4	1.0	Crimson Sweet	10.6	Off color yellow, Off type
		R2	0.264											0.331
		CV	39%											9%
		Adjusted LSD (p0.05	30,922											1.5
-

Table 2. Watermelon Variety Test, 2002; On-farm, Crisp County.
	Entry	Yield (lbs/A)	Average Fruit Weight (lbs)
1	Celebration	69,333	24
2	Carnival	71,894	24
3	Jamboree	59,645	23
4	Dulce	88,572	25
5	WX255	59,274	17
6	Ole'	66,441	22
7	Festival	79,731	23
8	Rojo Grande	44,972	21
9	Gold Strike	71,975	22
10	Montreal	65,695	24
-	R2	0.458	-
-	CV	25%	-
-	Adjusted LSD (p0.05)	34,552	-

From My Desk

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I'm still updating my mailing list so, again, bear with me. With the e-mailing of this issue, I am back on schedule with my newsletters. Talk to you next month.