By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
An unusually cool spring is delaying two of Georgia’s sweetest
farm crops: Vidalia onions and watermelons.
Officially, the 2005 Vidalia onion marketing season starts
today. This is the first year for a regulated opening selling
day for the state’s official vegetable.
Late onions
Vidalia onion farmers usually begin selling their crop around
April 20. But the growth of this year’s crop is about two weeks
behind normal, said Reid Torrance, coordinator for the
University of Georgia Extension Service office in Tattnall
County.
About 75 percent of Georgia’s Vidalia onion crop is grown in
Tattnall and Toombs counties in east Georgia.
“The fluctuating weather and cold snaps this spring have slowed
the maturity of the crop,” Torrance said.
The average daily temperature for Vidalia, Ga., has been 61
degrees since April 1, about 4 degrees below the average for the
same time last year. The soil temperature 2 inches deep has been
65 degrees, about 4 degrees below last year’s average, according
to data collected by the Georgia Automated Environmental
Monitoring Network.
Despite some extreme weather, the onions out in the fields now
look good, Torrance said. Heavy rain since March has made the
early onions taste milder. Farmers will probably harvest around
18,000 pounds per acre, “which is a good yield,” he said.
Farmers planted 13,000 acres this year. But one farmer in
Tattnall County lost about 1,000 acres to hail in March. They
planted 16,000 acres last year and harvested 26,000 pounds per
acre in a record-setting crop, Torrance said.
Two new diseases were discovered on Vidalia onion plants in the
fall of 2003. Iris yellow spot virus has hurt onions in South
America and the Pacific Northwest. Tomato spotted wilt virus has
hurt other Georgia crops such as tobacco, peanuts and some
vegetables.
The onions appear to have more of both viruses this year, he
said. And signs of the viruses’ effect on plant foliage have
continued into March and April, later than last year. The
viruses may have caused some plants not to develop well early,
making them more susceptible to harsh weather.
“But so far, we’re not seeing any dramatic effect on the crop
from these two diseases,” Torrance said.
Weathered melons
Watermelons around Cordele, Ga., where Georgia’s annual
watermelon festival takes place, “aren’t looking too sporty,”
said Ken Lewis, UGA Extension Service coordinator in Crisp
County.
Farmers began planting melons in mid-March, mostly in south-
central Georgia. Several severe storms since then have brought
40-plus mile-per-hour winds to the area and left young vines
sandblasted and twisted, he said.
The vines should be about 3 feet long by now. But cool spring
temperatures have stunted their growth to only 1 foot in most
fields. Crisp County’s average daily high temperature since mid-
March has been 72 degrees, about 5 degrees below the historic
average, according to the GAEMN.
Hail has beaten down vines in some fields. “Overall, the crop is
off to a rocky start,” Lewis said.
Farmers planted 4,000 acres of watermelons, mostly seedless, in
the Crisp County area, he said. No official acreage number has
been released for watermelons this year. Georgia farmers usually
plant about 35,000 acres each year.
Once the weather consistently warms up, he said, the watermelon
vines should recover. But the harvest will probably be pushed
back this year. Georgia farmers target the Fourth of July
holiday market, with peak harvest usually starting in mid-
June.
The cool wet spring has stunted Georgia’s corn crop, too. The
state’s farmers have started planting cotton now and will begin
a flurry of peanut planting later next month.
