A Wilt-Resistant Watermelon for Florida


the same ground. Although this might be possible for a few
years, a number of factors would soon make economic pro-
duction difficult. Probably the most important of these factors
is root-knot, which may be equally as injurious as wilt after a
heavy infestation has been established, although it spreads less
rapidly. Another is the fact that repeated cultivation soon
removes from the soil the coarse material that serves as an
anchorage for the vines, thus increasing the chances for wind
injury. This has proved to be one of the greatest obstacles to
the repeated use of land in the experimental field. Repeated
cultivation also renders the soil more compact and, although
water retention is improved, the soil becomes colder than soil
containing more rough material in the form of roots and sticks.
Anthracnose control might also become more difficult, if crops of
watermelons were grown repeatedly on the same ground.
 There are possibly other factors that should be considered,
but these points serve to illustrate the advisablility of rotating
the plantings of watermelons in the same manner that is con-
sidered good agricultural practice with other crops.
 The chief value of this new wilt-resistant watermelon is
that it may be planted on wilt-infested soil. This will permit
the re-utilization of thousands of acres of land once used for
melons, but which are now considered unsafe. At the current
rate of planting in the Leesburg area, 3,000 to 4,000 acres a
year, it would take a long period of time to replant this great
area of land just once. The possibility that this land could
be used again would encourage ownership. A three- to five-year
rotation of this land appears entirely feasible without running
into serious difficulty with factors other than wilt.
 From the preceding discussion it would appear evident that
 the fear of injuring the industry through the use of a wilt-
 resistant melon is not justified by the facts. On the other hand,
 it must appear equally evident that unless such a melon is de-
 veloped, the industry must certainly decline in those areas now
 devoted primarily to the production of melons, leaving a vast
 area of land to grow up to scrub oak. It is extremely unlikely
 that some of this land will ever be used for watermelons again
 because of the great cost of re-clearing it. However, most of
 it could be used again, and such growth as there is on it now
 would serve a useful purpose in furnishing anchorage for the
 vines.