‘Interesting growing season’ brings J.C. Watson early onion crop, great quality
‘Interesting growing season’ brings J.C. Watson early onion crop, great quality
The 2015 growing season was out of the norm from the jump, according to Jon Watson, president of J.C. Watson Packing Co., headquartered in Parma, ID.
“It’s been a very interesting growing season,” Watson said in mid-August. “The crop is about the same amount of acres as it’s been, but we planted earlier this year. Also, we’ve had favorable weather, hot weather, and we’re 10 days to two weeks earlier in this year’s crop.”
J.C. Watson started running onions on July 31, and early reds were going into storage in August.
Describing reds as an important part of the company’s manifest, Watson said, “Every year we keep growing and selling more reds, and this year we have bigger production and nicer sizes. The demand and usage is up, and we’ve increased by about 5 percent over last year.”
He continued, “We ship reds every single day, and they make up about 20 percent of our total volume now. We’re putting more reds into every segment — fresh-cut, foodservice and retail.”
The last load of 2014 Treasure Valley reds was May 15, and Watson indicated that the shed shipped the last load of Valley onions on June 1 this year.
“Some of the early onions in certain areas of the Treasure Valley are smaller, but we’ll have an adequate supply of jumbos,” he said. “We might be tighter on colossols and super colossols.”
A two-week spate of exceptionally weather in late June and early July was followed by cooler temps, and Watson said that weather pattern “will allow us to cure the crop down for storage.”
In short, he said, “I’m trying to find a way to complain about the weather, and after this weekend I just won’t have any reason to.”
Watson went on to say that California and New Mexico cleaned up in their respective onion deals early, allowing for a smooth transition from one region to another.
“One thing I know for sure is that as of this date, we have marketed more onions than usual because we’ve had nice onions to market.”
The third of four generations of Watsons to grow and ship produce, the current company president said onion farming practices have become more precise with drip irrigation, and water conservation is one of the benefits.
“We’re 100 percent drip now,” he said, adding that the tape was being removed from fields “to let the ground air out.”
In the shed, Watson has installed a new front end to the line for topping and cleaning more precisely.
“It’s a three-bank topper, and we can control the size of the top that’s left on,” he said.
Watson also said the company continues to increase capacity for retail packing, with more product going direct to large retail customers.
“We’re planting more for retail, and we also color sort for retail,” he said.
