Cooperative Extension Service
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
The University of Georgia

Volume 6/Number 10
October, 2002

George Boyhan, Extension Horticulturist-Vegetables
East Georgia Extension Center
Rosenwald Building, Third Floor
PO Box 8112
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460
912-681-5639 | 912-681-0376, Fax | 912-682-3481, mobile

Georgia Organics to Host Farmer-Researcher Roundtable

Georgia Organics, the organic growers group in Georgia, will host a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) funded roundtable. This Farmer-Researcher Roundtable will be held in conjunction with the Georgia Organics Conference. This event is scheduled for Friday and Saturday February 21-22, 2003, at the Nessmith-Lane Continuing Education Building on the Georgia Southern University campus. This day-and-a-half program will feature Jane Sooby as the keynote speaker. She is the Technical Program Coordinator for the Organic Farming Research Foundation. OFRF develops information and offers grants in the area of organic production. It is a highly visible advocacy group for organic production.

The objective of this Roundtable is to identify researchable ideas in organic production and put together teams of researchers to pursue funding and ultimately carry out these research projects.

The GO Conference will follow immediately after the Roundtable on February 22-23, 2003. If you are interested in attending the Roundtable and/or Conference, please contact me for additional information.

Cantaloupe Update

Although it may not be the time growers are thinking about their cantaloupes, there are a couple of issuees you may wish to share with them. First, both the United States and Canada have stopped shipments of cantaloupes from Mexico. This may not have any bearing on our growers later this summer, but if the ban stays in place, it may have an impact on future prices. The ban on Mexican cantaloupes was sparked by several years of sporadic salmonella outbreaks linked to Mexican cantaloupes. These outbreaks resulted in two deaths in 2001 and several people being hospitalized.

Another issue of interest to cantaloupe growers is the use of exgenous applications of calcium to increase shelf life. It has been shown that applications of Ca-metalosate as a fruit dip can significantly increase shelf life. We tried this during the 2001 growing season with mixed results. This past year, we tried it again using ice water instead of room temperature water to make up the solution. Cold water will infuse fruit more readily than warm water. Our tests confirm that shelf life was extended by this method (see graphs below).

We used Ca-metalosate at about 10 ounces per 1.5 gallons of water. The harvested cantaloupe fruit were placed in an iced solution of this material for 20 minutes. The fruit were then removed and taken to the Vidalia onion lab in Tifton, where they were stored under refrigeration. Cantaloupes were removed every three days to weigh and evaluate for firmness and visual appeal.

For growers that have wet receiving, where cantaloupes are placed in a chlorine bath to clean and disinfect, this may be an ideal method to apply Ca-metalosate. Adding slush ice to this solution should increase its effectiveness. In addition, work is being done to see if this can be applied in the field before harvest with the same results. Finally, using other sources of calcium such as Ca-chelate both in a dip or field-applied is being investigated. Ca-chelate is more readily available in Georgia then is Ca-metalosate.

From My Desk

I attended the GACAA meeting in Augusta this week, and I even won decond place for my poster. Before you are overly impressed by this, it should be noted it was in a field of two posters.

Some of the information presented here is from the November 4 and 11, 2002, Packer.