Your source for fruit and vegetable news

By Bobbie Whitehead

Long, round, large or the size of a bowling ball, customers wanting those hardy, sweet watermelons won’t have to look far to find locally-grown ones.

Farmers markets as well as growers’ roadside stands have numerous varieties of watermelons to choose from to suit whatever tastes the customer may have now that Virginia’s watermelon season, beginning in July and lasting to early September, has begun in earnest.

Growers this year anticipated a busy season once reports emerged in early July about watermelons containing an amino acid that offered similar effects as Viagra ®.

While reports about watermelons containing an important amino acid called citrulline are true, the buzz about the fruit giving more sensual properties to consumers has yet to be proven.

In reality, however, more studies are needed to prove the claim, according to Dr. Bhimy Patil, Texas A&M University’s Fruits and Vegetable Improvement Center’s director.

"Watermelon does contain citrulline, and in general, citrulline converts to arginine and then to nitric oxide,” Patil said. “It's the nitric oxide that actually relaxes blood vessels in the body."

Patil said more research needs to be conducted on citrulline in watermelons to determine if eating watermelons would provide enough of the amino acid to relax blood vessels.

As a researcher and director of the Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center, Patil said the center does conduct a number of different studies on fruit and vegetables and the health benefits of these.

“Most studies provide preliminary indications through cell culture, but further studies need to be conducted by the medical and ag scientists in animal and human clinical trials,” Patil said.

Watermelons, Patil said, contain Vitamin C, lycopene (which been shown to prevent prostate cancer in vitro and in vivo), potassium and small amounts of Vitamin A.

For men who might want to increase their consumption of watermelons to offset or help prevent prostate cancer, Patil said it's the edible part of the watermelon, or the pulp, not the rind, that contains the lycopene.

One thing’s for sure, though; watermelons do offer health benefits. The National Watermelon Promotion Board, based in Orlando, Fla., refers to watermelons as “practically a multivitamin unto itself.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found that the amino acid, citrulline, in watermelon can help maintain cardiovascular health, and the National Institutes of Health say eating watermelons may lower blood pressure.

However you slice your watermelon, Virginia growers have plenty so far, and state growers have maintained the same watermelon acreage for the fresh market for the past two years, having planting 1,900 acres of watermelons in both 2007 and 2008, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service for Virginia Agricultural Statistics.

In Southampton County and Suffolk, several farmers grow watermelons commercially, shipping them off at the terminal market in Courtland for sale in other parts of the country.

Retail markets like Grayson and Emma’s Garden Spot in Courtland grow their own watermelons and buy from growers in the Newsomes and Courtland area.

Right now, Grayson and Emma’s, owned by Neil Drake, reports that it has had steady sales and brings in fresh watermelons daily to meet customer demands. Customers at Grayson and Emma’s also are asking for both seedless and seeded watermelons, long and round watermelons as well as the Jubilee variety.

Sugar Babies, also available at Grayson and Emma’s, are referred to as icebox watermelons and are about the size of a bowling ball. The small sizes have become popular for singles and consumers who struggle lifting a regular-sized watermelon.

In Surry County, Steve Berryman, College Run Farms owner, said he’s just now starting to pick his watermelons, and though, they’re not his main crop, Berryman said customers ask for them.

“Watermelons are one of those items that people expect to be at the stand,” said Berryman, who’ll have both seeded and seedless varieties as well as honeydew melons. "Plus, everyone's been expecting watermelon sales to be up this year.”