Source: FARM PROGRESS, 6/26/19


A new watermelon line, developed by USDA's  Agricultural Research Service and Clemson University scientists, gets to the root of the problem of a major disease and pest of watermelon crops in the southern United States. Carolina Strongback is a rootstock watermelon that is resistant to Fusarium wilt and the southern root-knot nematode, according toWilliam "Pat" Wechter, plant pathologist with the ARS U.S. Vegetable Research Laboratory (USVL) in Charleston, South Carolina. Fusarium wilt, a soilborne disease that threatens vegetable crops, can stay in the soil for 30 years or longer...

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