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
It's not too late to attend the upcoming Organic Weed Management Field Workshop and Field Day, which will be held at Heritage Organic Farm in Guyton, Ga. Georgia Organics is holding this event, which is partially funded by an EPA Strategic Agricultural Initiative grant. The field day will be a follow-up on no-till planting of broccoli transplants. Ron Morse of Virginia Tech has developed a no-till transplanter that was used in this operation and he will be discussing his work.
Carroll Johnson, Gerard Krewer and I will be discussing weed control methods. The cost of the workshop and field day is $15, $10 for Georgia Organics members. Cost includes lunch.
The event will be held October 30, 2003, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at Heritage Organic Farm. For more information and directions, contact Shirley Daughtry at 912-728-3708.
Last year, the variety trial onions did exceptionally well in controlled atmosphere storage, with most of the varieties having 70-80 percent marketable onions even after 14 days at ambient conditions. This year, the percent marketable onions ranged from 0-23.7 percent immediately after removal from storage. After 14 days under ambient conditions, this range dropped to 0-11.3 percent.
The best varieties this year for storage included SRO 1000 and Granex 33 with 23.7 percent and 20.3 percent marketable onions, respectively. Both these varieties did well in the previous year, while in the 2000-2001 season, Granex 33 had 82.5 percent marketable onions after CA storage from the Vidalia Farm trial but only 26 percent marketable onions from the Bland Farm trial. SRO 1000 was not entered in the 2000-2001 season. This highlights a problem with CA storage with inconsistent results from year to year and among varieties.
An observational entry from K&B Development, 2047Y, had the highest percent marketable onions immediately after removal from storage, with 27.8 percent marketable onions. Of course, caution should be exercised with results based on a single plot.
This year again, the majority of the unmarketable onions were culled due to Botrytis neck rot. This disease is difficult or impossible to detect going into CA storage, but it can grow in storage. It does not sporulate in CA storage, so bulb loss is due to infections already in the onion when stored and infections of adjacent bulbs in storage.
Below are results of this year's CA storage.
| Controlled Atmosphere Storage Results 2003 -- After 4.5 months of storage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Days after Removal from CA Storage | |||
| Entry | Seed Company | 0 | 14 |
| 99C 5092 | Sakata Seed America, Inc. | 1.7% | 0.0% |
| 01ZG 5034 | Sakata Seed America, Inc. | 0.8% | 0.0% |
| Pegasus | Seminis/Asgrow | 0.8% | 0.3% |
| Century (EX 07592000) | Seminis | 9.4% | 3.4% |
| Cyclops (XP 6995) | Seminis/Asgrow | 2.2% | 0.0% |
| EX 19013 | Seminis | 7.0% | 1.0% |
| Granex 33 | Seminis/Asgrow | 20.3% | 11.3% |
| Granex Yellow PRR | Seminis | 2.3% | 0.3% |
| Savannah Sweet | Petoseed | 14.1% | 3.7% |
| Nirvana | Sunseed | 15.9% | 7.5% |
| Sweet Melody | Sunseed | 16.4% | 6.4% |
| Sweet Vidalia | Sunseed | 9.8% | 4.6% |
| SRO 1000 (RCX 6043) | Sunseed | 23.7% | 11.3% |
| SRO 1001 (RCX 5195-1) | Sunseed | 2.4% | 0.0% |
| WI-609 | Wannamaker | 0.4% | 0.0% |
| WI-129 | Wannamaker | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| WI-3115 | Wannamaker | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Yellow Granex EM 90 F1 | Emerald Seeds (Clifton Seed Co.) | 7.8% | 2.0% |
| SSC 6371 F1 | Shamrock | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| SSC 6372 F1 | Shamrock | 0.7% | 0.3% |
| SSC 33076 | Shamrock | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 21012Y | K & B Development | 8.7% | 2.2% |
| 2045Y | K & B Development | 7.7% | 3.4% |
| 606 DY | Shaddy | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 72766 DY | Shaddy | 0.4% | 0.0% |
| Mr. Buck (DPS 1033) | D. Palmer Seed | 7.8% | 2.7% |
| Southern Honey | D. Palmer Seed | ||
| Georgia Boy | D. Palmer Seed | 13.8% | 6.6% |
| Sweet Advantage | D. Palmer Seed | 0.7% | 0.3% |
| Ohoopee Sweet (DPS 1024) | D. Palmer Seed | 16.2% | 9.1% |
| Sapelo Sweet (DPS 1039) | D. Palmer Seed | 14.9% | 11.0% |
| CV | 5% | 4% | |
| Fisher's Protected & Adjusted LSD (p=0.05) | 12.3% | 8.0% | |
| Observational | |||
| 3007 White F1 | K & B Development | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2025Y | K & B Development | 9.9% | 7.4% |
| 2047Y | K & B Development | 27.8% | 11.1% |
| - | |||
Don't forget the weed management workshop and field day. Also, there is going to be an organic pest and disease management program held in Tifton on November 20, 2003. This program is also sponsored by Georgia Organics from the same EPA grant. Talk to you next month.