Dutch Crop tour onions - week 36
Lower onion yield and doubtful storage quality
Now that part of the seed onions have been harvested, the onion yield seems to be below the 5-year average, as expected. The difficult growing season has resulted in fewer tons and there are also doubts about the storage quality.
After a cold and wet period, the onion crop was very poor. In June, onion growers saw that the crop was experiencing a growth spurt and - with the acreage expansion of 11% - a record yield appeared to be coming. We are not so sure about that anymore and we know better.
Yield is not good
Now that the first seed onions are being harvested, the barrels seem to be disappointing as expected. On average, it is not bad, such as the dry year of 2018. But it is not easy, say several onion growers. In terms of size, it is very variable this year. There are many plots where the position is far from optimal and therefore a rough batch is created. Where the downy mildew has struck, many tons are missed.
Arjen Jakobs, onion grower in Wezup (Drenthe), saw growth suddenly stop after downy mildew hit hard in a block of red onions. "Of course you don't know exactly what would have grown if that mildew hadn't got in so heavily, but given the state of the crop at that time, I'm missing 10 tons per hectare."
Re-growth on plots without mildew is also often disappointing. It seems to lack sunlight and temperature and the foliage dies quickly. Although the southern Netherlands started harvesting at about the same time as normal, the central and northern Netherlands started earlier. Compared to other years, there are already a lot of onions in the swath before the first week of September.
Huge spread of plots
Although plots completely flattened from the mildew within 14 days and growth was steady on average, there are also a large number of plots that are well above average. Plots of 80 tons are no exception. This spread also appears to be present in the Crop Tour. The trials will make that clear.
Quality can become a problem
Some of the onions go into the shed, but onion growers are not all convinced of the good storage quality this season. The MH moment was far from ideal for many onion growers this year. The spraying itself went well, but what happened in the following weeks makes the effectiveness of MH questionable.
"A good sap flow from the plant to the bulb is the key here, usually preferably 2 to 3 weeks of good crop growth after spraying," says Mark Ermers, Crop Advisor at Bayer Cropscience. The latter is not going well this year. At the time of the MH spraying, many plots had the first infestation of mildew. In the weeks that followed, crop growth and uptake is no longer optimal and the effectiveness of the MH spraying decreases.
Jesse Torringa
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