By Clint Thompson
Like the rest of the Southeast, North Florida has been impacted by excessive rains over the past week, dating back to last Friday. It has impacted the region’s watermelon crop, which has just started being harvested.
Bob Hochmuth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Regional Specialized Extension agent in Live Oak, Florida, talked about the challenges that growers could soon face with the potential buildup of diseases.
“When you get this kind of weather stretched over a three-day period, it makes it worse than if it were flash in a pan and you got rain, but the next couple of days were nice and could dry off; a lot of times that rain is beneficial. It absolutely is not in our favor from a disease standpoint,” Hochmuth said. “We’re hoping that things are clean enough going into this. We’ve been really fortunate up to this point, because a lot of times things have moved in long before we get to the middle of May. But yes, it’s the kind of conditions over an extended period of time that give the competitive advantage to the diseases when it stays wet for a long period of time.”
Downy mildew disease was finally observed this week, while powdery mildew disease was seen last week. Gummy stem blight has also been reported. Hochmuth recommends that growers continue to keep things “simple.”
“Without anything specific in your fields, perhaps a simple program this week, like last week, will be Mancozeb (five days to harvest restriction) (Manzate, Penncozeb or other trade name) plus something as a preventative for powdery mildew (Quintec, Rhyme or Procure),” Hochmuth stated in his weekly email.