<p>In the wake of a challenging start to the Vidalia onion season, growers are reporting that the second half has definitely turned around. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Seed stem issues, cold weather and rain took a toll on the first half of the harvest, reducing the marketable crop by anywhere from a third to half, according to some growers, while others felt only slight effects from the region's early season challenges. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><img class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/troy_bland_headshot.jpg" alt="Cropped Images June 04th 2013" />Troy Bland, director of quality control and procurement for Bland Farms, tells AndNowUKnow, "The season turned around significantly and the crop has rebounded with excellent quality and eating experience. The seed stem issues only briefly affected us and recent weather has offered great growing conditions in the second half of the season." All Bland Farms storage sheds are full with promotable volumes through the Summer. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><img class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/John Shuman 01.jpg" alt="Cropped Images June 04th 2013" />“The season is going a lot better now. In twenty years I have never seen a turnaround like this before,” says John Shuman, Shuman Produce company President and Director of Sales. In early May, the weather turned for the better and made for ideal harvesting conditions. As a result, the crop responded very nicely with higher yields and better quality than the company saw in April.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/vidalia-updtae-cropped.jpg" alt="IMAGES - MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND" /></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><img class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/John Williams 01.jpg" alt="Cropped Images June 04th 2013" />John Williams, Sales and Marketing Director at Lyons, GA-based Herndon Farms, notes that the second half of the harvest for them, has been much better than average, with roughly 125% of the typical yield. “We’ve got great quality, beautiful onions right now and plenty of volume,” said Williams.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Kevin Hendrix, Chairman of the Vidalia Onion Committee, tells us, "It has been an up and down year. At the beginning we thought there was going to be a huge crop, but luckily at the end we are not seeing seed stem issues." Hendrix notes that most growers are at storage capacity as the harvest winds down. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Troy Bland, adds that this later part of the harvest is some of the best quality the company has had in years which is giving them the opportunity to prolong the shelf life of its Vidalia sweet onions.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for updates on Sweet Vidalia Onions.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
