“We are running as much as two weeks late on some of our crops this spring,” Dug Schwalls, director of sales for Southern Valley Fruit & Vegetable Inc., headquartered in Norman Park, GA, told The Produce News. “We were faced with heavy rain during the planting season leaving the soil so wet that it set us behind. The late cold snaps only added to the crops being late.”

With expanding staff and a promising crop coming in from its fields around Reidsville, GA, sweet onion giant Shuman Produce Inc. is making moves as it comes into the heart of its signature season, the Vidalia onion deal.

While Shuman is a 12-month grower-shipper of sweet onions from around the Western Hemisphere, the Vidalia onion is what started it all and that offering is still the crown jewel in the Shuman lineup.

“Right now we’re projecting that the cabbage movement in Georgia will start on April 23,” Calvert Cullen, president of Northampton Growers, headquartered in Cheriton, VA, told The Produce News April 16. “Cucumbers are scheduled to begin around May 15, followed by peppers on May 25.”

He noted that the company had already finished the Florida cabbage movement, which left a little gap until harvesting begins in Georgia.

Divided opinions about when the Vidalia onion season should officially begin — played out in Georgia courtrooms earlier this spring — have taken a backseat to more pressing matters, like the promising crop that most south Georgia growers started harvesting around Easter.

“Our Georgia crops began a bit later than normal this year,” Jimmy Myrick, vice president of Edward L. Myrick Produce in Andersonville, GA, told The Produce News April 18. “We will start on May 15 with squash and beans, but things may speed up a little depending on the weather. The crops, we’re happy to report, are all in good condition. Between April 15 and 20 is pretty normal for us, so we don’t expect to be very late.”

Georgia blueberry producers work 52 weeks a year to cultivate their crops and earn a solid reputation as one of the nation’s best purveyors of quality fruit. “Georgia is big enough that it’s grown out of the niche and is getting into a stabilized situation for return on investment,” said Joe Cornelius, chairman of the Georgia Blueberry Commission and owner of J&B Blueberry Farms Inc. in Manor, GA.