Rain and rot in the summer means fewer pumpkins this fall in Franklin County
Fall is recovering from one of the wettest summers on record.
Apple harvest is a week behind. Pumpkins are scarcer.
Visitors to local corn mazes are encouraged to wear boots - muck boots, if you have them - and mosquito repellent.
“It’s been a slower go in the rain, and we’re trying to keep up,” said Tawnya Tracey of Tracey’s Orchard near Greencastle. “Even loading the truck has been a challenge.”
The Tracey’s Orchard truck, loaded with 30 bins of apples, has gotten stuck in the mud a couple of times.
The pumpkin crop has been hit or miss for local growers who battled rot all season.
Pumpkins prefer things a little drier and warmer, according to Shippensburg area grower Alex Surcica. Yields are a little on the low side compared to last year. Disease control and harvest have been challenging.
More:Trick or treat! Here are Halloween events happening in Franklin County
Pennsylvania was the nation’s sixth largest producer of pumpkins last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The crop is suited to the state's small-scale and part-time farming operations.
No. 1 Illinois produces five times as much pumpkin as Pennsylvania. Three-fourths of Illinois-grown pumpkins are processed. When record wetness hit the state in 2015, yields plummeted, and consumers across the country worried about having pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.
The damper on Pennsylvania pumpkins this year is not as devastating. Nearly all pumpkins raised in Pennsylvania are sold in local markets or to consumers, according to the Penn State Extension. Most are for decoration.
In southcentral Pennsylvania weather observers have measured about 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 percent) more rainfall than normal during the growing season. Regions to the north have gotten more rain and in record amounts.
The “water year” ending Sept. 30 was the fourth wettest in Shippensburg, where records date to 1933, according to Tim Hawkins, Shippensburg University professor of geography and earth science.
More:Rainy summer causes moisture problems at Chambersburg Hospital
More:Southcentral counties lead Pa. in West Nile cases, and Franklin County is No. 2
The meteorological summer – the months of June, July and August – was the fourth wettest in Hagerstown, Md., where records date to 1898, according to weather observer Greg Keefer.
Limestone soils, usually preferable in Pennsylvania’s summer of hit-or-miss thundershowers, fell out of favor this year for pumpkin growers.
“In a year like this I’d put my money on sandy soil,” Surcica said.
Brent Barnhart of Country Creek Produce near Chambersburg saw different yields in different fields.
“It helped us having a diversity plan,” he said.
Barnhart planted pumpkin seeds on mounds covered with plastic and in a no-till field with rye grass rolled down like a mat. He lost 5 percent of the pumpkins in the no-till field. He lost 75 percent in the plastic-covered field. Pumpkins on top of the mound survived. All of those in the hollows were lost.
Take the kids
Stoner's Hijos Farm, 7678 Oellig Road, Mercersburg. Corn maze, other activities. 717-328-3617.
Cross the Creek Farm, 2035 Pine Road, Newville. Corn maze, pick-your-own pumpkins. 717-776-2317.
Country Creek Produce Farm, 3746 Etter Road, Chambersburg. Corn maze, other activities. 717-729-5343.
Fields of Adventure, 64 Tree Lane, Aspers. Corn maze, other activities. 888-677-0093.
Jim Hook, 717-262-4759