By Clint Thompson
The intense summer heat is taking a toll on South Georgia watermelons; so much so that the crop appears to be in its final days of harvest this year, believes Greg Leger, owner of Leger & Son, Inc.
“There’s a couple of late fields around that we’ve just been into one time and starting a second time, but most of these fields are toast already that I see from the road. I just know what I see in my area,” said Leger, a Crisp County producer.
“Most of the fields around had that lush vine cover, because we were in a rain forest for two weeks. Then it dried out, and here comes this heat and sun. Some of the quality is getting to be questionable in these older fields that we’ve been in three or four times.”
Consistent temperatures in the mid-90s with minimal cloud coverage last week allowed for sunscald to develop more rapidly on the watermelons. South Georgia’s harvest window shrunk as a result, which could present a temporary gap in the supply chain over the next week.
“It doesn’t seem like the retailers are jumping up and down for them (last week) but this week we might be wondering where they’re going to come from. I think Indiana is still about 10 days off. There might be a little bit of a gap also. I don’t think it’s going to be anything like the North Florida-Georgia gap, but there’s going to be a little bit of one. I don’t think that’s a bad thing to clean the pipeline out,” Leger said.
