May 1, 2025
As consumer interest in fresh, nutritious, and convenient options continues to rise, watermelon remains a global favorite. In the U.S. alone, watermelon accounts for more than half of all melons sold, according to the USDA. With a robust portfolio of watermelons, Syngenta Vegetable Seeds brings growers innovations that meet regional preferences while ensuring disease resistance and adaptability.
Market Demand Drives Innovation
Consumer trends drive innovation, like the development of new mini seedless watermelon varieties. Offering both seedless and seeded watermelon varieties help growers meet consumer demand. In fact, in addition to ensuring watermelon varieties have the disease protection and robust plant health growers need, taste leads breeding development.
“Brix and flavor are tested for at every level of our process,” said Rebecca Wente-Naylor, Cucurbits Product Specialist at Syngenta Vegetable Seeds. “It is a top breeding priority.”
Watermelon firmness is another feature tailored to meet both grower and consumer needs.
Firmer watermelons provide a better crunch for consumers and have better shelf life and transportability. For growers who want to delay harvest to respond to changing market conditions, firmer watermelon varieties can provide harvest flexibility.
Trends in Growing Strategies
While Syngenta does offer some direct sowing areas, “It is mainly a seedling market, since they have more potential to tolerate soil-borne diseases and develop in tough growing conditions,” said Chusam Awwad, Product Specialist based in Israel.
Grafting has also become more common in watermelon production, and Syngenta Vegetable Seeds works through the USDA to market rootstock products that can help with tolerance to fusarium and soil-borne diseases.
“We are bringing more breeding trials to growers’ fields to help select varieties in the environmental conditions in which they will be grown,” said Wente-Naylor.
Protecting Yield Potential Through Breeding
Watermelon disease can happen at any point in the growing process. In particular, fusarium wilt can cause “considerable damage where susceptible varieties are grown because entire plants are killed prior to harvest,” according to Oklahoma State University Extension.
Additionally, anthracnose may form small, easy-to-miss spots on watermelon, leading to USDA standards for certain varieties to be free from anthracnose. Finally, powdery mildew can reduce plant productivity and quality due to defoliation.
“Fusarium wilt race one and anthracnose race one are the two main diseases that we breed for,” Wente-Naylor explained. “We’re also introducing powdery mildew resistance into a lot of our new varieties.”
Syngenta Vegetable Seeds researchers also track up-and-coming diseases like fusarium wilt race two, watermelon vine decline, rind necrosis, and phytophthora and other regional-specific concerns.
Looking Toward the Future
Global watermelon demand continues to evolve, and Syngenta Vegetable Seeds continues to evolve breeding and cultivation approaches with it. By prioritizing disease resistance and consumer preferences, growers can access cutting-edge varieties tested for specific needs and challenges of their region and continuing providing the world with quality, great-tasting fruit.
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