Georgia’s wildly fluctuating temperatures in this year’s first four months played havoc on the state’s signature onion crop. While farmers were expecting a banner year for onion yields, a warm January and February followed by a chilly March and April caused widespread cases of seed stem in the 12,000 acres of Vidalia onion fields. Seed stem is a stress-induced condition where the center of the onion becomes hard and starts to produce a stem.