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

Volume 7/Number 2
February, 2003

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

Farmer-Researcher Roundtable and Georgia Organics Conference

A Farmer-Researcher Roundtable was held this past week (February 21-22) at the Nessmith-Lane Continuing Education Center (my office is upstairs in this building) on the Georgia Southern University campus in Statesboro. There were close to 70 in attendance, with farmers and researchers from throughout the southeast involved in this event. This event was funded by a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant along with funding from USDA-ARS.

The reason for this event was to catalyze new research in organic production in the southeast. Organic production has been one of the fastest growing areas of agriculture, and with the adoption of new organic standards on the national level by the USDA, there has been an increased awareness of this market niche.

The two keynote speakers for the event were Jane Sooby and Michel Cavagelli. Ms. Sooby is with the Organic Farming Research Foundation, which reports on and makes available research funds for organic production. She gave her perspective on the needs for organic research. Michel Cavagelli is a soil scientist with the USDA-ARS in Beltsville, Maryland, and was able to give his assessment of organic research.

The Roundtable had four breakout sessions concentrating on culture, pest management, marketing and environmental issues. I had hoped that specific research ideas and individuals would be identified to follow through and carry out projects. There was debate about whether a systems or reductional approach should be used. Both are valid approaches to research, with the former generally more difficult to carry out and more expensive. Either approach is fine, the point being to generate more research in the southeast in organic production. I will be putting together a post-Roundtable report and following up with attendees concerning their efforts on organic research. If nothing else, it was an opportunity for growers and researchers to get together and meet one another and discuss some of the problems in this area.

The Georgia Organics Conference was also a great success. I believe most attendees and vendors were pleased with the venue. Several concurrent sessions on organic production were underway Saturday and Sunday February 22-23. The vendors were particularly pleased, I believe, with easy access to the attendees. The Conference attracted nearly 250 individuals. The highlight of the Conference is the banquet. An all-organic meal is prepared that includes locally grown produce.

Producing Organic Vidalia Onion Transplants

Vidalia onion growers receive a premium for the unique mild onions they produce. Organic growers also receive a premium for their product. Over the past few years, I have had inquiries about producing organic Vidalia onions. Onions are heavy feeders and, from seed to finished bulbs, we use more fertilizer on this crop than on any other vegetable produced in Georgia. This makes it particularly challenging to try and produce organic onions.

In the past, I have grown orgnic onions from conventionally produced transplants. Yields, as you might expect, were lower than from conventionally produced onions, with a greater percent of medium sized onions. I believe that coupling Vidalia onions with organic production should result in a premium that more than offsets the reduction in yield.

This season, we produced organic Vidalia onion transplants from seed. Again as you might expect, the transplants were smaller in all parameters measured than conventionally produced onion transplants. This included length, stem diameter and weight. I am working cooperatively with an organic grower in Screven County and using these transplants in on-farm research. We are looking at several mulching materials for weed control. We will be assessing these onions for yield and grade, and evaluating the mulches for their weed controlling ability. The mulches we are looking at are Bermuda hay, wheat straw and compost compared to hand-weeding. Below are the results of the transplant production experiment.

You probably remember me because you just received the January newsletter. Although it's still February, spring is just around the corner. We will be harvesting onions starting in about a month (beginning of April) as well as starting seedlings for summer work. I plan on conducting work with both cantaloupes and watermelons this spring and summer, including variety trials. I will also be looking at a greenhouse cover called Solotrol. This material is supposed to screen out far-red light, preventing etiolation. Greenhouse producers who grow transplants may be aided by such plastic because plants produced under such conditions should be stockier and hold longer before transplanting.

Regards.