Watermelon’s Health

BY MARTY WIGLESWORTH USGR

As Manager for the East Coast Agronomy team with Syngenta, I often travel the watermelon growing areas of the eastern US giving disease control advice as both an employee of Syngenta and as a Plant Pathologist. Frequently I am asked by either a watermelon grower, consultant, or retailer to give them a “fungicide program” to cover their disease concerns for the season. When they ask this question, I usually push back and say that I can’t do that. After I see the puzzled look on their face, I give them more clarity on my response. I start by saying I would rather give you guidance on what you first need to think about.

I do this by asking them several probing questions:

To give you a blanket recommendation to cover every possible disease scenario would not be prudent, advisable, or economical.

One needs to think about what diseases that have been confronted and plan for them one at a time (but usually you find out that many have the same solution). By looking at these, it gives one the ability to plan out a strategy to confront and anticipate the possible solutions.

Are they early season disease problem, mid, or late… or do they occur throughout the season? That can greatly affect what products you need to choose and when. Since most of the existing fungicide products are best preventative, timing is important. Fighting a curative battle with a disease problem is possible (in certain situations), but it can lead to unnecessary yield loss…and importantly for the future, possible selection for more resistant biotypes of that disease.

Such a simple question tells me what direction for placing certain products by taking advantage of systemic products versus others that are less so.

Now there are a whole host of others that I eventually ask, but I generally start with those. Once I get the preliminary information, I next start to help them think about what is needed when, why it is needed, and how to strategically time each solution. I prefer to teach them “how” to think about the strategy (teach them to fish philosophy) versus giving them a sheet of paper with a full season spray program that doesn’t have a lot of flexibility…particularly when environmental and disease conditions change.

Let me give you an example. A grower tells me that they have a significant Phytophthora problem. Well, my question back to them is: “Is this mostly a crown rot problem or a fruit rot problem?”

By asking that, I can understand a lot about how to implement a strategy. Dealing with a crown rot Phytophthora problem is a different strategy than dealing with a fruit rot issue caused by the same pathogen. Although it may be a similar fungicide that deals with this problem, the timing to control each are dramatically different. Unless I ask the probing questions, I may give them an incorrect solution.

My general advice to a grower is to make sure your consultant/retailer is asking the right questions… and vice versa. By asking the probing questions up front, having a strategy that is flexible based on history (with the surety that the weather will throw you curves), and understanding the particulars of the fungicides selected; a successful disease program is possible, even under the most difficult situations.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s order for the federal government to restore the previous administration’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy hopefully provides much-needed relief to communities and landowners on the border who have been overwhelmed with the unprecedented number of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. The decision is welcome news for Texas farmers and ranchers in the border region who are experiencing direct negative impacts from the border crisis.

Elected leaders and law enforcement officials along the Texas border said a pause in the immigration surge was desperately needed during a recent Farm Bureau informational trip to the region. It is hoped the return of the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy will provide cities and counties a chance to recover from the unsustainable drain on local resources and services being used to respond to the crisis.

Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening