By Clint Thompson
Watermelon harvests are winding down across South Georgia. Late-season rainfall has sparked disease outbreaks in fields, says Tim Flanders, a watermelon scout.
“Most of the folks I’m dealing with are beginning to wrap up. I’ve got some late watermelons that I guess they will continue to try to go for a while, but that’s just a small portion of what I do. I feel like it’s kind of winding down, lets just put it that way,” Flanders said. “We’ve had a lot of disease issues show up on the tail end. I think that’s put a sour taste in people’s mouths. They’re taking risks by cutting some of these fields because of the potential disease issues they could get up the road.”
“Once it started raining again, this disease started moving again. The people I look at, which is a small portion, they’re about to wrap up.”
Flanders scouts fields mostly concentrated in the Tifton, Georgia, area. But he believes other growers in surrounding counties are likely facing the same disease problems.
“I’ve talked to a couple of other people, and they’re running into disease issues too. You can deal with some disease issues, but when we get into the Phytophthora and Pythium that wants to spread after you get on the road, you don’t want to get into a bunch of rejects. You start giving whatever money you make back at that point,” Flanders said.
Flanders added that a week to 10 days after July 4 is when South Georgia watermelon production begins to slow down.
“Most of these watermelon growers are also row crop growers, so they have other concerns. When it gets close like this, it begins to start winding down,” Flanders said.