Grower Stories

POWERHOUSE watermelon a strong late-season finisher with consistent size, colour and texture, for hot climates
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Ryan Swindley, a watermelon and sugar cane farmer from Home Hill, closed out 2024 harvesting commercial blocks of POWERHOUSE and it more than lived up to its name. 

Bred in the United States and selected for the Australian market after extensive trials, POWERHOUSE packs a distinctive olive-green skin, Crimson Sweet stripe and moreish texture. Ryan liked that the variety is “very consistent” in size and was more than happy with how it has yielded. 

“It’s been quite a difficult market the last few weeks, with low prices and excess fruit on the market, but we’ve been able to capitalise on sending fruit to the chain stores in particular, thanks in part to the [consistent] size of Powerhouse”, he said.

Having previously grown POWERHOUSE in smaller demonstration trials, he said “it seems to be quite straight forward to grow” and is eager to “finish with POWERHOUSE again next year”.   

“We’ve seen that it has good sugars early, it cuts really well and has more of a traditional watermelon texture, and the people we share it with keep asking for more of ‘that melon’.

Justin Martin, Senior Technical Sales Representative for Syngenta Vegetable Seeds, conducted the first Australian trials of POWERHOUSE in 2021, with the first commercially grown crops harvested in late 2023. 

 “I’ve trialled it largely in summer conditions and 2024 has seen a full year of sales for the variety across the north and into the southern growing regions,” he said.

“It seems to really handle hot, dry days, but we are also seeing some great results late season in the north”. 

Stand out features of POWERHOUSE is its shape and size uniformity. 

“It consistently packs out numbers that are meeting retail and store specification.  It has consistently produced fruit in the 7 to 9 kilogram range, and we don’t see it blow out to large or extra large fruit sizes”. 

POWERHOUSE produces a nice blocky fruit with a thick rind, an ideal trait for shipping, making it particularly attractive variety to grow in the North.  It has consistently returned high Brix test results, with high sugar, particularly early in the season. POWERHOUSE also has excellent eating qualities, between its flavour and traditional watermelon texture. 

POWERHOUSE will be continue to be grown in Chinchilla and across Sunraysia over the summer, so keep an eye out for over the coming months and experience the taste of that melon for yourselves.