Cucurbits are big income on small scale
Newark, Dei. - The
Delmarva Peninsula is the nation’s
major supplier of late-season
watermelons, cantaloupes and
muskmelons. It also produces a
large volume of fresh market
cucumbers. These vine crops are
an important income source for
many farmers, even though total
cucurbit acreage averages less
than 10 acres per farm.
Production is labor intensive,
largely because of the difficulty of
weed control and the need for hand
harvesting. Full-season weed
control is especially difficult since
fresh market vine crops are
usually planted in wide rows, so
plants don’t produce a weed
shading canopy.
There are also few herbicides
safe for use on cucurbits. As a
result, repeated cultivation and
hand hoeing have been the major
means of controlling weeds in
these crops.
According to weed speciabst
Dave Regehr of the University of
Delaware’s Agricultural Ex
periment Station, weeds add from
$ll2 to $2OO an acre to the cost of
Field worker hoes check plot in herbicide study at U. of
Delaware Georgetown Substation where watermelons are
being grown on raised beds with drip irrigation under various
herbicide treatments.
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producing melons and cucumbers.
This includes $36 for herbicides
and $5O for cultivation and hoeing.
The remaining losses are due to
herbicide injury, reduction in
quality and the overall effect of
weed competition.
In recent years there’s been
growing interest in reducing
production costs on cucurbits by
more intensive management
practices which increase yields
per acre. Plastic mulch is used to
suppress weeds, promote early
yields and enhance fruit quality.
Combining plastic mulch with
drip irrigation in the plant row
makes it possible for growers to
water and fertilize as needed with
a minimum of labor and waste.
Applying water and nutrients this
way has the added benefit of not
stimulating weed growth between
crop rows. The low water pressure
and volume needed for drip
irrigation make it feasible to
irrigate several acres of melons or
cucumbers with no more than a
household water system.
Research at the Delaware ex
periment station has shown that
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U. of Delaware Extension vegetable
specialist Mike Orzolek uses fluid drill planter
to sow pre-germinated vegetable seeds at
drip irrigation tubing can be
placed in the soil below the plow
layer, permitting normal tillage
operations in the overlying soil.
This permits the tubing to remain
in place from year to year, thus
making it cheaper to use. With
effective weed control, farmers
can crop the land intensively
without having to buy new tubing
each year.
In a study now in its final year at
the University’s Georgetown
Substation on drip irrigated
watermelons grown in raised beds
without a plastic mulch, Regehr
has found several new herbicides
that appear to give effective weed
control with little or no crop injury.
One of these materials
Sonalan may soon be available
for commercial use on a limited
basis. Another compound, BAS
9052, has given very effective
postemergence grass control and
appears to be completely safe on
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all broadleaf crops. Labeling such
a compound could have tremen
dous impact on vegetable
production, he says.
Regehr and two Delaware
colleagues vegetable hor
ticulturist Donald J. Fieldhouse
and Extension weed specialist Mike
Orzolek recently received a
$32,000 grant from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture to
conduct a 3-year study of cucurbit
production systems suitable for
use on small farms. What they
hope to come up with is a “recipe”
for growing melons and fresh
market cucumbers that helps
farmers combine the best of
available cultural practices in a
way that minimizes production
costs and at the same time
maximizes yields.
The study compares the per
formance of transplanted, dry-
incastcr Farming, Saturday, August 1,1981— At
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Georgetown Substation. Plots oftomatoes,
peppers, cucumbers and cabbage started this
way will be on view at Field Day August 12.
direct seeded and fluid-drilled
cucurbits with both shallow,
conventionally installed and deep,
semi-permanently installed trickle
irrigation tubing. It also is aimed
at determining the feasibility of
using plastic mulched, drip
irrigated installations for suc
cessive crops over two or more
growing seasons. And it is intended
to compare the economics and
efficacy of various weed control
systMns on such cucurbit plan
tings.
Visitors to the University of
Delaware’s upcoming Farm and
Home Field Day, Wednesday,
August 12, at the Georgetown
Substation will have an op
portunity to observe research and
demonstration plots involved in
both cucurbit studies. Activities
start at 9:30 a.m.
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