Most Vidalia onion varieties are coming out of the fields
now.
And so far, they’re heading to the markets with palate-pleasing
quality, say University of Georgia experts.

“Overall, the quality is good, and the yields are about
average,” said Reid Torrance, a University of Georgia Extension
Service agent in Tattnall County. “It’s not a bumper crop. But
so
far it’s a good crop.”

Torrance said problems with bacterial and fungal diseases
have
been limited to isolated fields.

“We’ve just harrowed those fields up,” he said. “So far, we
haven’t had any severe outbreaks. The latest-maturing onions
should be ready in three weeks. So barring any exceptionally bad
weather, we should be able to escape any major disease
problems.”

Heart of the
Harvest

Growers have harvested the earliest varieties and are moving
the midseason varieties
that make up most of the market. “We’re getting into the
traditional varieties now, the
onions we built this market on,” Torrance said. “We’re
really just getting into
the heart of the harvest.”

David Curry, a UGA Extension Service agent in Toombs County,
said the onions in his
area are looking good as the harvest hits high gear. Farmers in
Tattnall and Toombs
counties grow about 80 percent of the sweet Georgia crop.

“At this point, we’re looking pretty good, as far as
production is concerned,”
Curry said. “We’ve probably got a fourth of our onions
harvested or clipped and
bagged.”

Workers typically clip the tops off of the onions, bag them
and leave them in the field
to dry, or cure. The onions then go to packing sheds, where
they’re further dried, sorted,
packed and shipped.

Most Onions Not Yet
Harvested

Tattnall County growers have harvested only about 15 percent
of their onions, Torrance
said. Officially, the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service
reports the harvest at
22-percent complete.

Three onion varieties won’t be included in this year’s
harvest. “Sugar Queen,
Spring Express and Sweet Dixie have been eliminated from the
crop
by the state
commissioner of agriculture,” George Boyhan, a
horticulturist with the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

All three were early-maturing onions that some considered too
hot to be the mild, sweet
Vidalia onions shoppers are looking for. But the loss of one of
the three wasn’t entirely
a good thing, Boyhan said. Sugar Queen, a Japanese overwintering
type of onion, has strong
disease resistance, too.

“There were some complaints about the flavor,”
Boyhan said. “Some people
felt it had a little too much bite to it. But the disease
resistance was an important
advantage.”

Prices Concern
Growers

Battling fungal and bacterial diseases seems a never-ending
fight for sweet-onion growers. Heading into the harvest, though,
they’d had an easier time this year than most. “Our growers are
most concerned about what’s going to happen with these prices,”
Curry said.

Wholesale prices that started around $18 per 50-pound bag
dropped to mostly around $12 a bag heading into the last week of
April. Wholesale and retail prices may differ greatly
at times. But with the most popular varieties now
moving into the market and prices generally headed down, shoppers
can look for some bargains on their favorite sweet onions.

“As a trend, you can always get the best onions at the
best price around the first of May,” Torrance said. “That’s been
true for 20 years, and it’s still true.”