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
Several events related to onions are scheduled for April. An industry-wide meeting is scheduled for April 2 at the Captain's Corner Restaurant in Vidalia at 7 p.m. Growers and handlers will discuss the supply and demand for onions this year. You may wish to get the word out to your growers about this meeting.
On April 10, another onion meeting at the Callaway Community Center in Lyons, GA, begins at 10 a.m. Representatives of the Georgia Federal/State Inspection Service, UGA Extension personnel, and Georgia Department of Agriculture personnel are expected at the meeting. This will give growers and handlers an opportunity to have questions answered concerning the upcoming season.
In addition, this year the Commissioner of Agriculture has mandated that Vidalia onions meet the standard of U.S. No. 1 or better for sale, including applications of tolerances. USDA standards for fresh vegetables are available on the web in PDF format at www.ams.usda.gov/standards/vegfm.htm. In the past, there were lower standards for in-state sales.
Finally, it has been clarified that Vidalia onions cannot be rebagged or repacked outside the Vidalia growing area. There apparently had been some question about this.
Although most growers have contracted for or have started their triploid seed, it's not a bad idea to review research from the past few years on producing these seedlings. Don Maynard with the University of Florida has just published such a document.
Many growers, including myself, have experienced difficulty growing triploid watermelons. Through a variety of studies, the basic recommendations for producing high germination rates begin with a medium that is 50-85 percent peat with the remainder either vermiculite or perlite. This should be amended with lime, fertilizers and a wetting agent. Many commercial media meet these requirements. Cell size should be 1.8-3.4 cubic inches and should be planted with one seed per cell. Seed depth should be 3/4 inch with the radicle (pointed end) pointing up. This will reduce seedcoat adhesion. The soil should be moistened lightly to bring the seed into contact with the soil.
These trays can then be wrapped with polyethylene and held at 85-95 degrees F for two days or until radicles are visible in the drain hole. The day/night temperatures should be 70-80 degrees F and 64-70 degrees F, respectively.
Seedlings should be fertilized every three days with a 50 ppm N from CaNO3 (25 ppm) and KNO3 (25 ppm) until the first true leaves are fully expanded; then switch to 200 ppm N solution every other day until the second true leaves are fully expanded. At this time, the fertilizer is reduced for several days prior to field transplanting. Plants will be ready when they can be removed from the tray with the root ball intact. Usually transplants take three to five weeks to grow.
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service recommendations for the number of pollinizer plants required in triploid watermelon production has been one in three. Recent work by Scott NeSmith and John Duval suggests that this may be too many. Their work indicates that optimum yields of triploids can be obtained with one pollinizer for every four triploid plants or one in five. I hope to conduct some on-farm work in this area this year.
From My Desk The onion season is almost upon us -- about two weeks away.
The information for the triploid watermelon production is from a publication Don Maynard published in the Proceedings of the 8th Inter. Sym. on Timing of Field Production in Vegetables. The pollinizer work was published in the most recent issue of HortScience (February 2001). I am interested in replicating Scott NeSmith's work. If you have a triploid watermelon grower who would be interested in cooperating, please contact me as soon as possible.
Talk to you next month.