Watermelon Crop Suffering From Drought: Melon-Choly

By Faith Ford, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

Jun. 23–It’s survival of the fittest in Jason Hatcher’s watermelon fields, and only the heftiest melons seem destined for seed-spitting contests, picnics and pool parties this summer.

Despite rain across some parts of the Panhandle on Thursday, Hatcher said only 1.3 inches of rain has fallen since he planted his first fields in mid-April, a month behind schedule because of dry weather. Thirst has put the plants in survival mode, and smaller melons have been pruned off by the vine to save their larger counterparts.

A field crew on Thursday was harvesting the bulky, green crop on the farmland Hatcher and his cousin lease in Jackson County near Marianna. The workers formed an assembly line and passed watermelons from one man to the next to reach a waiting trailer bed.

The same field producing the pictureperfect melons being harvested also is yielding dehydrated fruits. Hatcher dug into a patchwork of green vines and leaves and pulled out a withered, brown plant the size of a cucumber.

“It’s a bad feeling to see all your profit being sucked off because of dry weather,” Hatcher said, eyeing the puny melon.

The 31-year-old farmer has been planting watermelons in his family’s tradition since he was a teenager. He said this is the driest year he has experienced.

So far, he and his cousin and business partner, Jerry Scurlock, have planted about 40 of 95 acres. In Northwest Florida, watermelons normally are planted in middle or late March.

The unplanted fields are tilled and laced with fertilizer and lime, but instead of watermelons, weeds are growing now. The farmers hope to plant in time for a Labor Day crop — something Hatcher said he has never tried before. If the dry spell doesn’t end, though, Hatcher said he might be planting pumpkins for a fall harvest.

“You begin to wonder what’s going to happen if it doesn’t rain pretty quick,” he said.

While Hatcher and other farmers have been watching the skies and The Weather Channel, organizers in Chipley have been preparing for the 50th Panhandle Watermelon Festival. Festivities start tonight and run all day Saturday, starting with a morning run and culminating with an afternoon bluegrass concert.

Free watermelon slices and a watermelon contest and auction featuring the biggest melons around are some of the highlights.

Hatcher has placed in the commercial growers’ category for two years in a row. His entries are about 10 pounds lighter this year, he said, weighing in at about 40 pounds.

Amateur growers who plant baby melons in their backyard gardens normally enter watermelons in the 160- to 180-pound range, according to Andy Andreasen, director of the Washington County Extension and vice president of the festival.

“The big melons always bring a lot of excitement,” he said.

The watermelon festival dates back to the pink fruit’s heyday in Northwest Florida in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, Andreasen said.

“It became a big cash crop in this area as we began to develop agricultural land,” he said. “There was a real high-dollar return for the investment if you could get to the market early.”

Production has declined over the years, in part, he said, because of a few bad years and the loss of some area brokers. Washington, Jackson and Holmes counties are the leading producers in the Panhandle, but watermelon growing falls behind peanuts, cotton and corn even in those counties, Andreasen said.

Last year was good for growers despite too much rainfall. A disease outbreak in South Florida and late planting in Georgia and South Carolina forced prices up in time for the Fourth of July.

“We were experiencing super prices on melons, better than we’d seen in 15 or 20 years for that time of year,” Andreasen said.

Prices are not as high, but still good, for farmers this year at about 12 cents per pound, he said. But if weather conditions do not improve, Andreasen said there might not be many local melons on the market.

Many plants, like Hatcher’s, have aborted some of their fruit so yields are lower than normal. With the continued dry weather, Andreasen said vines are in danger. If too much sun gets to the melons as leaves dry up, Andreasen said the crop could be sunburned, and while that may not change the taste, buyers are less apt to purchase yellow-striped watermelons.

“With watermelons, like a lot of highdollar vegetable crops, there’s a lot of risk involved,” Andreasen said. “You’ll have good years and then you’ll have years when you lose your shirt.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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