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

Volume 9/Number 7
July 2005

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

Onion Production Meeting

Chris Hopkins, the new agriculture agent in Toombs County, is coordinating this year's onion production meeting. The meeting will be held August 15, 2005, and — as in the past — it will be held at the Captain's Corner Restaurant in Vidalia. The meeting will begin at 11:30 a.m. with a sponsored lunch followed by the meeting. The meeting should rap up around 2 p.m.

There will be presentations on a number of different topics including cultural practices, diseases and weed control. Steve Krask with Agrotain is sponsoring the lunch. If you have any questions about the meeting or need directions on how to get there, call me or Chris (912-526-3101).

Branded!

I was at the Bland Farm on July 14 visiting, and I was shown a new method of putting PLU codes directly on the skin of onions. Using a laser, the code is etched directly onto the onion. No longer would you need to place a sticker on each onion. Bland was in the process of testing the device, and it is not clear how well it will work with onions. Onions have a papery skin that is often shed (or in the process of shedding) during handling and shipping.

The technology is offered by Durand-Wayland Inc. of LaGrange, Ga. Shortly after my visit to Bland, an article appeared in The Packer (Aug. 1) about how the technology was featured in The New York Times and eventually on ABC Evening News. Who knows — the PLU stickers may be on their way out!

This technology may be more useful where the skin of the commodity doesn't come off as readily as on onions. Check out the photos of a branded onion.

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Onion Variety Recommendations

There will apparently be no changes to the approved onion variety list. The committee charged with putting together the university's recommendations, which includes Bill Randle, Reid Torrance, Doug Bailey and me, had decided not to make any recommendations this year. The university adminitration decided, however, to forward recommendations to the Georgia Department of Agriculture based on the pyruvate analyses.

Thye recommended that the following be removed from the list:

And the following be added:

The Georgia Department of Agriculture decided, however, not to move ahead with any of these recommendations. They felt there was not sufficient time to implement any changes before the upcoming season. Stay tuned.

Don't forget about the upcoming production meeting on August 15. Spread the word among your growers and encourage them to attend. If you have any questions about the onion variety list, let me know. See you at the production meeting.