By Clint Thompson
The majority of North Florida’s watermelon plants have rebounded from the cold temperatures during the weekend of March 12.
Damaged plants are beginning to show new growth and make a significant recovery in a week and a half since temperatures dropped below freezing. Growers who started planting earlier in mid-to-late February are seeing the biggest difference, says Bob Hochmuth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Regional Specialized Extension agent in Live Oak, Florida.
“A lot of the real early ones had been in the ground long enough to have a pretty extensive root system established. Those plants are able to come back more quickly because they have the base root system already established,” Hochmuth said. “Some of the ones that were planted only one week before the freeze with not as much root establishment, they’re a little bit slower to come back. I would say around last Thursday we had really nice weather.
“Especially Thursday and Friday were really warm with perfect conditions for recovery of the plants. That’s when we started to notice things were back on track. It was pretty clear at that point the ones that were going to have to be replaced versus the ones that were going to recover.”
Some plants have had to be replaced. Hochmuth estimates that less than 10% had to be replaced. Fields that were more damaged than others had upwards of 20% to 30% that had to be replanted, though those fields were not the norm.
Hochmuth estimated just after the freeze event that about 5,000 acres of the 7,000 acres normally produced in the Suwannee Valley had already been planted. Ideal weather conditions favored early plantings for growers.
