Onions and Garlic Harvest Continues

Some Growers Hurt By Lack of Water

Onion and garlic growers are still harvesting on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley for the dehydrated (dehy) market. The industry is only harvesting what the processing plants can handle in a given day.

Bob Ehn

“Fresh market garlic and onions are nearly all finished and quality across the fields is good,” said Bob Ehn, CEO and Technical Manager for the California Garlic and Onion Research Advisory Board, based in Clovis Calif. He added that some growers were not able to finish their fields because they did not have enough water for the last irrigation. “It really affected the yields of the late varieties,” Ehn noted.

The processed crops will continue through September, and then quickly new fields will be planted for the 2014 season.

Ehn reports that the harvest of dyhy onions in the Tule Lake area of northern California will also start the first of September. “This is a major growing area for the state,” Ehn noted.