Why eat watermelons? Because they’re good for you

Published: July 12, 2012

More than 200 people attended the 2012 Watermelon and Vegetable Producers Field Day at Clemson’s Edisto Research and Education Center, the 10th year the center has hosted the free event. image by: Peter Hull

BLACKVILLE — Watermelons aren’t just sweet and juicy. They’re also an important source of vitamins and minerals — essential ingredients for a healthy lifestyle, a scientist said Thursday at Clemson University's Edisto Research and Education Center.

Penny Perkins-Veazie, a post-harvest physiologist with the horticultural science department at N.C. State, said watermelons contain potassium, a very important electrolyte salt; vitamin C, to help maintain a healthy immune system; and vitamin A, a major factor in preventing blindness, among other benefits.

Speaking at the 2012 Watermelon and Vegetable Producers Field Day at Edisto, Perkins-Veazie said watermelons also are about 92 percent water and even contain a small amount of fiber.

What watermelon does not contain is cholesterol, and they are fat-free, she said. There’s also research that suggests eating watermelon may benefit diabetes and cardiovascular patients and fight against viruses.

Such benefits have moved watermelon beyond a traditional dessert fruit, she said.

"I argue the value is in the complete fruit," she said. "I want people to eat the whole fruit."

Perkins-Veazie’s research includes evaluating food safety, quality and consumer appeal characteristics, such as flavor, color, antioxidants and texture, to help provide growers with better quality fruits and vegetables for high-value markets.

She also researches breeding materials, storage strategies and packaging to develop more efficient post-harvest methods.

More than 200 people attended this year’s field day, the 10th hosted by the Edisto center.

A morning classroom session included an overview of S.C. Watermelon Board activities. After the classroom session, the group moved outside to view field research projects and field trials and sample more than 90 watermelon and melon varieties.

Field presentations included grafting in watermelon, sensor irrigation and fertilizers and squash bug and spider mite issues.

Clemson University’s Tony Keinath, vegetable pathologist at the Coastal Research and Education Center in Charleston, said although it’s hardly an ideal situation, when faced with a quadruple threat of four diseases simultaneously striking a watermelon crop, a grower may need to spray for all four.

Put simply, more disease means fewer watermelons.

Keinath said there are four key diseases growers should monitor: powdery mildew, gummy stem blight, downy mildew and anthracnose.

Rainfall levels, temperature and humidity and wind strength and direction are all factors than determine where and to what extent crop diseases occur, Keinath said.

And while growers crave rain to help grow their crops, wet weather can bring other benefits. For example, dry weather is not favorable for gummy stem blight outbreaks, Keinath said.

“It takes about 48 hours of wet leaves to trigger the disease,” he said. “We just haven’t had that much wet weather this year.”

Powdery mildew and downy mildew generally are the most damaging diseases, Keinath said.

Downy mildew already has been found in South Carolina this year, he said. When the disease hits, it spreads rapidly on unsprayed watermelon or crops sprayed with the wrong fungicide.

“My studies in Charleston clearly show that as incidents of powdery mildew increased, crop yields were reduced,” Keinath said.

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