07/19/06 The Sweet Taste of Watermelon

The sweet taste of Watermelon. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The Pacific Northwest is a prime area for growing some of the sweetest watermelons in the nation. According to George Clough, associate professor with the Hermiston Agricultural and Research Extension the long hot days and cool nights of the region are what really brings out the sweet taste. CLOUGH: Now during the day, the plant photosynthesizes and it builds sugars and it stores sugars as its energy source. And then at night in the darkness it respires. Just like us it burns off sugar and uses that sugar that it builds up during the day. So during the day when we have high temperatures you get a lot of sugars accumulated and then at night when it's cool, the rate of loss of sugars is low in this area. So the net result is that you have more sugar in the melon. According to Clough consumer demand has prompted the growing of mostly seedless watermelons even though they are more difficult to grow. CLOUGH: They're much more difficult to grow than the seeded melons. They're kind of a weak sister in terms of hardiness. They're more susceptible to disease and they're just kind of an overall a wimpier plant at the beginning of the season. And there's also a requirement that they have another type, a seeded melon interspersed amongst those seedless to provide pollen, because a seedless melon will not produce pollen. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.