With growing season in and home schooling out, NWPB is meeting an essential need for parents working from home and teachers preventing the summer slide WINTER SPRINGS, FL — June 3, 2020 — The National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB) is realigning resources to adapt to a new climate while focusing on summer sales. Unlike years past when summer months meant in-person …
Georgia Watermelon Season Ramps Up Next Week
By Clint Thompson Georgia’s watermelon harvest will ramp up next week. According to Samantha Kilgore, executive director of the Georgia Watermelon Association, acreage is projected to decrease this year to 19,000 acres. It would mark a significant drop from previous years’ harvests. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, from 2016-2018, Georgia averaged a harvest of just more than 23,000 …
Stem Splitting in Watermelon, Squash and Other Cucurbit Crops
Posted by: Joseph Kemble, Edward Sikora, and Gary Gray/Alabama Extension According to a recent post, over the past several weeks, lower than average temperatures have been common across Alabama. Cucurbit crops (squash, watermelons, cucumbers, cantaloupes, and other small melons) are warm season vegetable crops that can suffer damage when temperatures fall below 60 degrees F. Cold damage is cumulative and …
Georgia Watermelon Season Kicks Off June 3
May 27, 2020 — LAGRANGE, GA – Sweet, refreshing Georgia watermelon is coming to a store near you in early June. The 2020 watermelon crop is expected to have the crisp, sweet flavor and high quality unique to Georgia watermelon. While Georgia has had a cool spring, consumers should still start seeing Georgia Grown watermelons in stores the first week …
Watermelon Shortage Keeps Prices Up for Famers
By Clint Thompson Times have changed in the past two months for watermelon farmers in the Southeast. When farmers in Alabama, Florida and Georgia began planting their crop in late winter and early spring, the coronavirus pandemic struck and created a cloud of uncertainty for growers. What would harvest season look like? Would there be customers to purchase the crop? …
Connecting the Watermelon Industry with Retail and Foodservice Buyers
Winter Springs, FL — May 20, 2020 – The new National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB) Watermelon Supplier Database is the perfect platform to connect retail and foodservice buyers with suppliers as the summer season takes off for America’s favorite melon. Each year the NWPB staff promotes watermelon to retail and foodservice audiences, both in person and digitally. When a contact …
Watermelon Farmer Hopes to Capitalize on High Prices
By Clint Thompson Watermelons are in short supply and high demand right now. Alabama produce farmer Art Sessions hopes to capitalize when his crop becomes ready the first week in June. “We’ve been getting watermelons out of Florida and they are scarce. Everything coming out of Florida is really tight on account of this virus deal,” said Sessions, who also …
Watermelon Shortage by Memorial Day?
By Clint Thompson Watermelons are already in short supply. There soon could be a watermelon shortage, said Carr Hussey, a watermelon farmer in Florida and Alabama and chairman of the board of the Florida Watermelon Association. “It’s drying up by the minute. There’s going to be shortage for Memorial Day, I do believe,” Hussey said. “The kicker is, how fast …
Watermelon Supply Down; Prices Stay High for Farmers
By Clint Thompson The watermelon supply chain is currently down. As a result, prices are up. It’s a pleasant surprise for Florida growers who are currently harvesting this year’s crop, according to Gene McAvoy, University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension agent emeritus. “(The farmers) were a little bit apprehensive that with all of this COVID-related decline in …
Tips for Two Troublesome Watermelon Diseases
By Bhabesh Dutta Phytophthora fruit rot has been a concern for watermelon growers not only in Georgia but also in other states that grow watermelon. No single measure has been shown to suppress the disease consistently and effectively, especially when environmental conditions are favorable for disease development. Compared to other watermelon diseases, this disease is difficult to manage and strictly …