By Clint Thompson
North Florida’s watermelon season is nearing its final few days of harvest. It’s not as if there isn’t plenty of fruit still left to be sold. The low market prices are contributing to growers finishing up this year, says Bob Hochmuth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Regional Specialized Extension agent in Live Oak, Florida.
“We definitely are winding down here. Once we get to the middle of June, we’ll probably be towards the end of it. There may be a few fields that will continue the week after that, but I think this week will wind down the main part of the season,” Hochmuth said. “I think there’s plenty of fruit still left to sell, but I think the market is probably going to demand to move from this area and up into Georgia and further north. I think there’s plenty of fruit that could be sold, but I think this week is going to wind up the majority of it.”
Hochmuth said vines have held up fairly strong. Still, to maintain a viable crop for the next couple of weeks would require careful management of downy mildew disease. Its pressure is high in the region and will likely preclude farmers from continuing the season much further.
“I think the farms that have done a good job staying on top of the spray schedule, yeah, the vines in many cases are really strong. To maintain it for another two weeks, it’s expensive to do,” Hochmuth said. “Right now, we’ve got a lot of pressure throughout this region with one primary disease and that’s downy mildew. If you’re going to manage downy mildew, it’s going to be an expensive program.”