It’s officially fall, which means people are partaking in traditions like going to the pumpkin patch and carving jack-o'-lanterns. But, challenging weather conditions are shrinking the supply of pumpkins this year on some Midwest farms.
Greg Meyer is the agriculture and natural resources educator for Ohio State University Extension in Warren County.
“The primary culprit of poor production this year is really Mother Nature,” Meyer said. “The spring wasn't good, the summer hasn't been great, and when you add all those things up, it just means there's just not quite as much of it this year as there has been in the past.”
He says heavy rains during spring and early summer delayed planting. Then, once the crops were in the ground, the weather got extremely hot and dry. Southwest Ohio has been experiencing abnormal dryness and moderate drought since August, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Like most fruit, pumpkins are 90% water. Without rainfall or irrigation, they struggle to grow. That’s led to some pumpkins being smaller than usual.
Meyer says you can expect to pay more for pumpkins this year, because of some farms’ reduced yields.
“As you look at some of the local farms that are out there, they've already kind of talked that the prices are going to be higher, and they may have to outsource to get some to fill the large quantities of people that want to get out there for pumpkins and Halloween,” Meyer said.
He recommends calling local pumpkin patches before you go to check on availability.
Sourcing struggles
Shaw Farms has been growing produce outside of Milford for more than two centuries. But, the family farm no longer grows its own pumpkins for the fall festivities it hosts. Pam Shaw says the clay soil on the property and intense summer rainfall make it hard to produce the crop.
So, Shaw buys “an enormous amount of pumpkins” from other growers. She says her brokers that ship out of Illinois and source farms in Central and Southern Ohio are reporting some challenges this year.
“I am hearing from a lot of the places that I source that there is a pumpkin shortage, and that size is a factor also because of the lack of rain within the last six to seven weeks,” Shaw said.
She says so far, Shaw Farms has been able to purchase enough pumpkins. Shaw says she doesn’t know what the rest of fall will hold, though.
“It is very early in the season, and I'm not sure what the middle to the end of October will bring for the ability to get pumpkins,” Shaw said.
She says even if shortages make it more expensive for the farm to purchase pumpkins later on, she intends to keep prices where they are for customers.
Not all farms hurt by weather conditions
This season’s challenging weather conditions are not impacting all local farms.
Brown’s Family Farm Market in Hamilton raises about 30 acres of pumpkins. Joyce Brown says the crop has been unusually successful this year.
“For some reason, ours did great,” Brown said. “We did not get quite the size as last year, but we got excellent yield.”
She says the ground at the farm is sandy and gravelly, so it didn’t retain moisture from heavy rains like other places might have. Brown says they also have a preventative spray program to prevent mold and mildew that seems to have worked.
She says that means there’s plenty of pumpkins for picking at Brown’s Family Farm Market.
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