By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
One crop is soaking up the daylight and growing in fields.
Another is quietly staying dormant in orchards. If all goes
well, there should be plenty of Vidalia onions and Georgia
peaches come harvesttime.
Vidalia onion farmers started placing their plants into fields
around Thanksgiving. Most were finished before the first of the
year, said George Boyhan, a horticulturist with the University
of Georgia Extension Service.
Cool and dry
“This year’s onion crop is in good shape right now,” Boyhan
said. “Diseases are light and the weather so far has generally
been good to them.”
Boyhan figures growers planted about 14,000 acres this year,
about 1,000 acres more than last year.
Onions prefer cool, dry weather. But cold snaps in February and
March can damage maturing onions.
The onion harvest begins around April and runs through June. Not
all onions are sent directly to stores. Some are stored. Most
stored Vidalias are sold by September, though. Sweet onions from
other parts of the world usually hit the U.S. markets in
October.
However, you might find some young, fresh Vidalia onions in
stores right now.
Vidalia onions that were planted in August are now being sold as
salad onions in some grocery stores. These onions aren’t fully
matured and are much like large green onions, or scallions.
At planting, each young onion plant is placed by hand into
fields. There can be as many as 80,000 onion plants per acre in
a field. Tomatoes and peppers, however, generally have fewer
than 10,000 plants per acre, Boyhan said.
About 20 Vidalia onion varieties are grown in Georgia. They are
known as short-day onions. They grow to maturity depending on
the amount of sunlight in a day. Vidalias generally will start
to bulb when days are about 11 hours long.
Chilled
Weather, so far, has been kind to Georgia peaches, too.
Nature’s on track to give Georgia’s peach trees enough chill
hours (hours below 45 degrees), said Kathy Taylor, a UGA
Extension horticulturist. Depending on the variety, Georgia
peach trees need between 400 and 1,100 chill hours to properly
bloom in spring and produce fruits at the first of summer.
Peaches in south Georgia have had 325 to 350 chill hours. That’s
right on track, Taylor said, for most varieties there to get the
750 or so chill hours they need by Feb. 15, the usual end to the
chill hour count.
Middle Georgia peaches have had 550 to 575 chill hours. Again,
that’s good news and adding up nicely. Most varieties there need
around 1,100 hours before Feb. 15.
Too many warm snaps like the days Georgia had over the holidays
could reverse the beneficial effects of the chill hours. But
Taylor doesn’t believe it will be a problem this year.
Peach farmers are happy to get cold weather now. But freezing
weather in late-March and in April has caused serious problems
in the past.
