By Clint Thompson
The harvest/marketing window for North Florida’s watermelon crop is not open for very long. That is why it is imperative that growers in the Suwanee Valley maximize their crop potential every year. They plant early and harvest the crop before the watermelon industry moves north to Georgia.
It is the same scenario for watermelon-producing states up and down the east coast, says Bob Hochmuth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Regional Specialized Extension agent in Live Oak, Florida.
“I think if we can get a good solid three weeks, we’d be okay. What happens south of us and what happens north of us is either going to close that window further or open it a little bit,” Hochmuth said. “Somebody else’s demise ends up being somebody else’s benefit. It’s a pretty narrow window here. It happens quickly from South Florida to North Florida and into Georgia. Each one of those is pretty short windows.
“It’s an expensive crop, and you’ve got to be really careful. If we have another year like we had last year, then it’d be really important for them, if they have another year price wise like we had last year, it’d be really important for them to make good judicious decisions. We’re going to try to help them with that.”