Cooperative Extension Service
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
The University of Georgia
George
Boyhan, Extension Horticulturist-Vegetables
East Georgia Extension Center
Nessmith-Lane Building, 2nd Floor
PO Box 8112
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460
912-681-5639 | 912-681-0376, Fax | 912-682-3481,
mobile
The Georgia Department of Agriculture, for the first time, has set an opening date for shipping Vidalia onions. The date is April 28, 2005. This date is the first date onions will be allowed to be shipped without prior approval. Onions can and will be dug and graded before this date. Growers wishing to ship onions before this date, however, must have inspectors physically at their facilities inspecting the onions before they can be shipped.
More than 1,000 acres of onions were destroyed in Wayne County by a hailstorm that went through the area. This will further reduce an already small crop. This year's crop was estimated at about 13,500 acres, which was significantly down from last year. Although the loss of these onions is unfortunate, the short supply should result in higher prices throughout the season.
Yara is the international company that supplies calcium nitrate. They brought together their agronomists and sales representatives from all over the world to tour the Vidalia onion region and meet at the Rural Development Center in Tifton. Specialists with the University of Georgia made presentations on Vidalia onion production. In addition, Yara representatives gave presentations on fertility research with onions from around the world as well as discussing onion production in their various home countries.
The toured the packing facilities at Bland Farms and met with Bland Farm representatives, including owner Delbert Bland. They offered an interesting perspective on onion production from their various regions.
I attended the no-till field day at Shirley Daughtery's Heritage Organic Farm. Shirley has been working with Georgia Organics and university researchers to develop no-till methods for organic production. Ron Morse with Virginia Tech had his no-till rig there to help them plant peppers.
No-till and other conservation tillage methods may hold great promise for organic production. Organic production relies on high levels of organic matter in the soil to produce crops. Unfortunately, the warm, humid weather in the southeast makes the net increase in organic matter difficult to attain. No-till, which relies on limited disturbance of the soil, is an alternative that will, over time, result in an increase in organic matter, particularly in the top 4-6 inches. Competition from cover crops, however, still poses a challenge to this alternative cropping method.
I'm still working on the addition to my house. I've got it closed up and water-tight. You'd be amazed at how many different places water can get into a house! I'm working on the drywall now and hope to have this project completed by June.
Talk to you next month.