By Clint Thompson
In his weekly email to North Florida watermelon producers, Bob Hochmuth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Regional Specialized Extension agent in Live Oak, Florida, advised growers that Extension agents in the Suwannee Valley region will again offer weekly petiole-sap testing this year.
Hochmuth said that growers should let their county Extension agents know if they want that service this year. Testing will start once vines reach a couple of feet in length, which will, or is already happening.
“Typically, we provided that service in the past few years on 100 different fields. We are able to test in the field at that moment in time the level of nitrogen and the level of potassium in the plant. We’re using the petiole and crushing it with a garlic press and putting on these two little sensors that tells us in that moment in time what the nitrogen and what the potassium levels are in the plant,” Hochmuth said.
“We can help refine and perfect the weekly injection schedule of those two nutrients. Nitrogen and potassium are the two that we’re fertigating during the rest of the season. It’s just a really good mechanism to be able to tell immediately without having to send tissue off; we can tell immediately in the field what (growers) should be doing.
“We can make those modifications once a week to try to keep everything perfected in terms of nutrient availability of nitrogen and potassium.”