Cooperative
Extension Service
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
The University of Georgia
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
Alliums 2000 is scheduled for this fall in Athens at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. The dates are October 29-November 3, 2000. The deadline for getting abstracts in for presentations of posters is March 15 -- about two weeks away. For more information, contact Bill Randle in the Department of Horticulture at 706-542-0674.
Foundation training is scheduled for April 17-21, 2000. This training is scheduled to be held in Athens. For more information, contact Charles McPeake (State Program Leader A&NR) at 706-542-0974.
A field day is planned for May 2, 2000, at the Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center. The day begins at 10 a.m. and lunch will be served. Please make every effort to attend and encourage your growers to attend as well. For more information about this field day, contact Randy Hill at the Vidalia Farm at 912-282-4453. Randy would like to get an accurate head count so he can plan the meal accordingly.
On February 10, the first of a four-part series of organic production workshops was held at the Oconee County Civic Center. Dr. Deidre Birmingham introduced this workshop with a definition of organic production. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Luanne Lohr called "Markets for Georgia Organic Produce."
Dr. Lohr's presentation began with several statistics about who buys organic, how much is produced nationally, and where it is marketed. A surprisingly diverse group of people are buying organic produce. Twenty-five percent of consumers in all income classes buy organic produce. In 1998, organic produce topped $700 million in sales. Organic production is the fastest growing segment of fresh produce. Organic produce is sold through several outlets, with the vast majority sold to consumers through traditional supermarkets. Other outlets for organic produce include natural or health food specialty stores, natural food co-ops, farmers' markets, on-farm, and community supported agriculture, to name several.
Paul Dutter, who handles farm certification for Georgia Organics, Inc., gave a presentation on the requirements and process for certification. Along with following the regiments laid out for organic production, the most important aspect is record keeping, Keep records on previous history of the property, crop rotation, soil fertility management and market into which the produce is sold. This last item is a concern to many who do not want to share this information. These records, according to Georgia Organics, Inc., are required to safeguard the system and ensure -- if any question arises about the produce -- that there is a paper trail to work from.
A short field trip was arranged to Andrew Stocklinski's farm. Mr. Stocklinski has a 50-acre organic farm. Although his entire farm is managed organically, only three to five acres are intensively managed for vegetable production. This area is surrounded by a 12-foot deer fence. Mr. Stocklinski markets his produce in some unusual ways. Collards, for example, are marketed from the first true leaves through the flower stage. Each stage of growth is marketed as a different product. Along with unusual marketing approaches, he grows vegetables that are rarely available. Some of his best customers are restaurants looking for organically produced vegetables. Freshness and an unusual selection are also selling points.
I attended the last business meeting of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Grower Association in Tifton, GA, on February 17. The GFVGA continues to grow and prosper. The annual conference held in Savannah had the largest attendance ever, with 823 people attending. Their annual meeting has grown so large, they are considering moving it from the Hyatt Regency to the Savannah Civic Center.
I urge you to encourage your growers to join this organization. Along with its annual meeting, it does a lot of campaigning throughout the year promoting Georgia produce. In addition, this organization actively lobbies congressional leaders to pass laws favorable to growers.
Growers interested in joining should contact GFVGA at P.O. Box 2945, LaGrange, GA 30241; 706-845-8200. Charles Hall is the Executive Director and runs the day-to-day operations of the association. Agents are also encouraged to join. Cost for university personnel is $25.
Many of us are familiar with the history of the Vidalia onion industry and how it developed in southeast Georgia. The onion varieties themselves also have an interesting history of origin. Onions are thought to have originated in northern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and neighboring areas. They do not exist as a wild species.
Onions are widely grown throughout the world and the diversity of onion germplasm is quite large. This is due to the fact that the onion has to adapt both its bulbing and flowering to the region where it is grown. Because of this, onions are classified into short, intermediate and long day varieties to reflect this range of adaptability.
The Yellow Granex onion that is the standard for the Vidalia onion industry had its origin in this country from two populations of introduced onions. One population came from Bermuda as White Bermuda onions, introduced in 1883. These onions actually had their origin in Italy. The second population was called Valencia and was introduced from Spain in 1925. Early Grano was a selection from Valencia that had a round shape and was higher yielding than the Bermuda onion.
Yellow Granex had its origin from Early Grano through variety Early Grano 502, which in turn led to Texas Early Grano 951C, which became one of the parents for Yellow Granex hybrid. The other parent was YB986 from Excel, which in turn was derived from White Bermuda.
The large-scale production of hybrid onions was made possible by the discovery of cytoplasmic male sterility in the early part of the 20th Century. This type of male sterility made possible Yellow Granex as well as all the onion hybrids used today.
Many short-day yellow onion varieties are available to growers today. Currently, we are testing 28 varieties at the Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Farm in Toombs County.
From My DeskThe weather has warmed up the past week or so here in southeast Georgia. With this warming trend, the onions have really started to grow. The onions have not suffered any cold damage up to this point, although there is still a chance of some cold weather. In the past, when cold weather has hit the onions late in the growing season, we've seen an increase in seed stems. The relatively dry winter has also meant there are not many diseases affecting the onions. Of course, all of this could change pretty quickly, but overall the onion crop looks very good.