The folks at G&R Farms in Glennville, GA, provided us with a good update on its Peruvian program this week, noting on Oct. 18, “Today, as we start planning for the November and December holidays, we are at the halfway point for the Granex flat type onion season. October in Peru is considered the May of the Georgia Vidalia season. This means that we are at the peak of the Peruvian season with the shortest growing periods and the best weather.”
The update continued, “This year’s season has been one of the best in 10 years and the quality is excellent. We have good jumbo sizes and plenty of supply for your promotional planning, which you can expect through December.
“To develop a stronger and longer seasonal program we are planning to begin shipping our intermediate variety, called Campo Lindo, in mid-December. This is a rounder onion with a slightly different appearance than our traditional Granex flat onion, but its flavor is equally sweet with consistent quality.
In addition the company has stopped watering its first blocks of organic Peruvians in preparation for G&R’s first harvest later this week. The company said, “We expect our first organics available for shipping by Thanksgiving.”
Also new this season are Peruvian sweet reds, and the G&R update said, “This fast-growing production region is producing some of the best sweet red onions in the world thanks to perfect growing conditions, abundant water and affordable ocean freight.” The sweet reds are available November through January. G&R also invited everyone to “stop by our booth 4755 at the IFPA Global Produce & Floral Show to see our quality and ask us about bulk or bag promotions for sweet red onions.”
In addition to its Peruvian update, G&R also reminded us that the Vidalia onion planting season is already a few weeks underway. You can take a look at the video that shows the seedbeds and hear from Production Manager Cliff Riner below.
“The seedbeds in the video are the first of planted seeds, and they are about three weeks old,” the update said. “Most of the onions are about the size of a matchstick today. They’ll be harvested around Nov. 1, when they are the size of a pinky finger, to be transplanted into their new permanent grow beds. We will also have two or three more sowing dates for seedbeds. We stagger the plantings which allow us to use early, intermediate, and late season varieties. This allows us to extend our Vidalia season from April through August,” it continued.
Watch for the next crop update after Halloween for some “Big Sweet News.”
