I was, my Watermelon Rancher placed in the top 20. Not too bad for my first contest.
Without a doubt. What was entered was also the cream of the crop for California outdoor as well. I bet the fail rate would be much, much higher if you could do a sample across what is grown state wide. That being said the mycology testing is a little wacky - for example there is no way to differentiate between good and bad bacteria in the test.
How long some of these pesticides can remain is pretty scary as well. I had a good friend who was shocked to see that he had one of his entries test positive for myclobutanil (
Eagle 20). He had gotten the cut from someone else in the spring, who had treated their mother plants with it before they took cuts. That means it was still present in the plant over 7 months after it was applied. According to the rep I talked to at SC labs they have seen
Eagle 20 show up even after 3 generations of clones.
Also I believe many of the judges were from out of area as well. Like I said, I don't think it was rigged, but new people, with different tastes would probably help mix up the results in the future.