Due to the special start of the season, we now see clear differences in the final results on the fields. This season the seed was sown very early, early, normal and late. The weather conditions shortly after sowing also had a significant influence on the final result.
In many cases there was a heavy rain shower, followed by a period of drought. This caused encrusting with plant reduction, causing dwarfism and a hollow stance in some fields.
Extreme weather
In the months of April and May it has been very dry. As a result, the crop is underdeveloped in many areas, except for growers who started irrigation on time and the first over-fertilization (second half of May and early June). Irrigation continued to be a point of attention throughout the growing season. Partly due to the irrigation and the growth, it was possible to control thrips well with the resources we have.
Thursday 25 July was a battle of wear and tear for the onions. With locally more than 40 degrees and a lot of wind, evaporation was on average 8 millimeters. As a result, many necks have been emptied. In the following weekend many, especially early plots, were ironed. The following week, the medium-early varieties also started ironing.
Spraying germination inhibitor
We would like to warn you about spraying MH. Because the onions often lie completely flat, 2x spraying is recommended (back and forth with plenty of water). The late varieties will now also have to be sprayed gradually. Pay close attention and consult your crop advisor.
Yields
The onion sets are coarse this year, the quality is good and the yield is above average at the moment. The earliest Rijnsburgers, which are often delivered on contract, will be ready on time. It is expected that these will yield an average yield.
In addition, we expect that the expansion of the seed onion acreage this year will be offset by the lower yield per hectare and we expect to arrive at approximately the same amount as 2017. Then we had about 1,2 million tons of onions.