By Clint Thompson
The calendar says mid-April which means vegetable season is underway in South Florida.
Gene McAvoy, a crop consultant, discussed the current season.
“We’re just getting into full swing with watermelons, tomatoes, peppers, just about everything right now,” McAvoy said. “We’re just now finishing up with cool season crops, cabbage and what not. But just about everything else is in full swing for April.
“Things have been pretty good. We haven’t had major issues. On the east coast they’ve had problems with the Thrips Parvispinus in pepper. We haven’t seen that over here on the west coast yet.”
McAvoy estimated that watermelon harvests got in “full swing” over the past couple of weeks and will continue for the next month. Like other watermelon-producing areas in the region, South Florida acreage is expected to be up this spring.
“We might have a little increase because of citrus going out. Some of that acreage has gone into watermelons,” McAvoy said. “A lot of them (in North Florida) are the same players down here. They just grow down here and move up there and go on to Georgia, Ohio; wherever they go after that.”
North Florida industry leaders believed prior to planting season that acreage would not decrease this year; maybe not increase as much as prior years but definitely not go down.
Georgia watermelon acreage is expected to increase this year. A key reason why is the current pricing struggles impacting the state’s row crop producers. Growers have either transitioned to watermelon production or are leasing out land for production.