From the Fields: Joe Colace, Imperial County melon and vegetable grower, packer and shipper

By Joe Colace, Imperial County melon and vegetable grower, packer and shipper

We are into our second full week of sweet corn harvest. We had a little bit of a cool spell in early April, and that cool spell may have set maturing back a couple of days. Overall, we’re very pleased with the crop. We have the bicolor and the white corn that are going, and we were up to full production last week.

On the melon front, we are excited for what we see in the fields, anticipating what we believe will be a normal start time, which is the first week of May. The quality looks encouraging, so we’re optimistic we’ll finish well. The weather forecast is slightly above-average temperatures, so that bodes well for the melons. The other thing we like is dry weather, and we have that nice westerly flow, which gives us the drier conditions, so everything is very positive.

We’re very excited about the prospects of our Picasso line of specialty melons. We have our frontline Picasso melon, for which we have expanded the acreage base. There are a couple of other Picasso melons—the Picasso Sunrise and the Picasso Moon—and we expanded trials for both varieties. The Picasso is a hybrid melon that comes from two different lines.

Related to technology, we are trying different types of mechanical weeding. There are a couple different companies that are working on that. They mostly focus on vegetables, but one of those companies is out in one of our melon fields. We’re encouraged with what we think is going to be the future. Obviously, AI application is becoming a reality, and we hope to be at the forefront. Also, we are trialing new varieties for the future, so we are relying on advanced technology when it comes to solubles, production and sizing. The plant breeders are working diligently to try to create what the consumer likes, which is a larger melon with good shelf life and the flavor profile that we work hard to maintain.