By Clint Thompson
Watermelon harvests have come and gone for North Florida producers in the Suwannee Valley Region. A challenging start to harvest season ended positively for growers, explains Bob Hochmuth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Regional Specialized Extension agent in Live Oak, Florida.
“I think that, overall, the season has been okay, and I think that we were fortunate to have the higher price and great demand here towards the end. I think early in the season, plus or minus Memorial Day, the prices were not as high as we normally like to see during that time of the year,” Hochmuth said. “So, it was a little bit of a struggle for those that were selling the majority of the crop during that period of time.”
Different weather events impacted the crop’s production season. It started with lingering drought conditions leading into planting season and included a late-season freeze event in March.
“A lot of the farms still had excellent watermelons over the last two weeks when the market itself improved a little bit more. I think in terms of yield and quality, it was an excellent year. There was some cold weather early that I think had an impact on the early-season fruit size. We were mostly dealing with small mid-size fruit early, but then as these later harvests have been done, the size has improved,” Hochmuth said.
“We definitely dodged the bullet early in the season with those cold freezing periods. I mean, we narrowly escaped one of those without losing everything. I think the really, really dry April and early May played a role in the sense that we just didn’t have to invest heavily in the fungicides like we normally would.”