Each year, I spend a week visiting growers in a part of the country I wouldn’t normally get to see. This year, it was the Texas Rio Grande Valley, an area on the Mexico border near the Gulf of Mexico. My timing was a little off, since it was the end of the growing season in April 2024, but melon production was still underway.
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Wheat with shorter widths
To get the best effect from your windbreak, you'll need to match the height with the distance to the next windbreak. This grower chose wheat, so the windbreaks are closer together.
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Sorghum windbreak is flexible enough for tractor passes
One grower uses sorghum, which reaches about 4 to 6 feet tall. But it's flexible enough that tractors ride directly over it when applying controls. The tractor passes down each sorghum row, with sprayers reaching half way across the rows of melons on both sides of the windbreak.
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Sugarcane windbreak
Texas' only sugar mill shut down just a month or so ago, which means local growers have extra seed they cannot use. This operation, where vegetables are the main crop, decided to give a sugar cane windbreak a try. Although it's newly planted here, it will eventually reach up to 10 feet, allowing for a wide field for melons.
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Bumblebees used to augment honeybees on Texas melons
Texas melon growers have been experimenting with bumblebees as pollinators. The feedback is that they will go out in weather honeybees will avoid, but they do not travel as far as those more traditional pollinators. As a result, several growers are using both in their melon fields.
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Wheat with shorter widths
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Sorghum windbreak is flexible enough for tractor passes
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Sugarcane windbreak
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Bumblebees used to augment honeybees on Texas melons
That part of the Rio Grande Valley is windy, especially during the growing season from November through April and past the season through August. Winds average about 11 to 12.6 mph with non-storm gusts anywhere from 20 mph to 50 mph.
While that helps alleviate heat for workers, it can damage more sensitive crops like leafy greens, and disrupt pollinators for melon crops.
As a result, you’ll find windbreaks through out the Rio Grande Valley growing region. Take a look at the slideshow above to see three examples of windbreaks for melons I saw during my tour.
On a side note, the most common mix was to interplant pollenizers with seedless watermelons as opposed to side-by-side rows.
May 2, 2024 
