A) Cracks in the watermelon rind; B) Bacterial exudate oozing from cracks.
Claudia Nischwitz and Ron Gitaitis University of Georgia, Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Department of Plant PathologyEmail: cnisch@uga.edu
The disease was first observed in spring of 1989 in the United States and occurs to a varying degree every year since then. In severe cases 90% of the marketable fruit can be lost. The initial symptom on fruits is a small watersoaked lesion that enlarges quickly within a few days. Eventually the rind will crack, the entire fruit rots and bacteria begins oozing from the cracks.
Picture your photograph as the APSnet Featured ImageClick here to find out more
License to Copy. This notice hereby grants permission to APSnet users to copy the image featured for noncommercial, personal use. All components of APSnet are copyrighted and may not be reproduced or distributed except by express permission of APS. Copyright is not claimed for material provided by United States government employees as part of their work. APSnet copyright extends to images, text, graphics, photographs, illustrations, audio, video, computer software, and all other elements of the site.Instructions to Copy. For PC, position your mouse cursor on the featured image, click the right mouse button, and choose "Save Picture As..." or "Save this Image as..." whichever is the case. For Mac, click the only mouse button and follow the same steps. Users may want to set up a specific directory and file naming scheme for storing images; otherwise, they will be saved using your system defaults. Images may be used in any software application that supports JPEG file format or viewed in an Internet browser as local files.