Collecting watermelon fruit data

Collecting the last data for the 2013 field season. From left to right: Dusty Martin (undergraduate student), Allen Ray (undergraduate student), Geoffrey Meru (graduate student), Vickie Waters (research technician), Cecilia McGregor (PI), Jeremy Ray (undergraduate student) and Susan Hawkins (graduate student with Dr. Ruter).

Photo by Donglin Zhang

Graduate Assistantship available for MSc student

We currently have an opportunity available for a student who wants to pursue his/her MSc degree at UGA. The research will focus on molecular marker applications in watermelon breeding. If you are interested, please contact Dr. McGregor

Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus symptoms on watermelon

The best laid plans ...

This is what happens to a watermelon field when you get 7.1 inches of rain in 6 days.

Pictures by Allen Ray

Zucchini yellow mosaic virus

Mechanical innoculation of watermelon seedlings with Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV).

Watermelon Pollenizers

In 2012 we carried out a study to determine the overlap of male flowers produced by watermelon pollenizers with female flowers produced by triploid cultivars. You can download the Report here, and an interactive Excel file here. You can use the Excel file to graph the flowering patterns for your chosen combinations. Keep in mind the data from the Excel sheet should be viewed in combination with the data in the report.

We are planning to repeat the experiment in 2013 and will then publish all the data in a peer reviewed journal, but if you want to use the 2012 data, please use the following citation: McGregor C (2012) Comparison of time to first flower and flowering duration for triploid watermelon and diploid pollenizers, 2012 Report, http://ugamaclab.blogspot.com/

We thank all the seed companies who provided seed for this study free of charge. 

Update: Related publication.