Georgia watermelon season got slow start, but fresh melons still available | Business | Macon.com

A watermelon — one of the sweet tastes of summer — is about 90 percent water, but too much rain while it’s growing can be too much of a good thing.

The early and frequent rains this spring and summer slowed down the harvest of most commercial watermelon growers in Georgia by at least two weeks, said Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Watermelon Association.

While some smaller farms in the state are still harvesting watermelons, the large commercial producers are done for the year, he said.

“In talking with a grower recently, he said he normally started his harvest June 2 to (June) 5, and this year he started June 15,” Hall said. “Our window for marketing the product … is leading up to the Fourth of July. … So, we were squeezed with the window we had to get melons on the market.”

Also, wet conditions caused disease to develop on some melon plants, which sometimes couldn’t dry off. More sun would have killed the disease and prevented it from spreading to other plants, he said.

via Georgia watermelon season got slow start, but fresh melons still available | Business | Macon.com.