Good quality and sizes abound, thanks to plenty of rain and heat this summer.
William Ruby stands in his pumpkin field in Mexico. The crop is looking great this year.Mexico, NY -- Just like all the other fruits and vegetables this year, the pumpkin crop is about two weeks early.
And that could cause some problems if growers don’t pick them soon, local growers say.
William Ruby, a grower in Mexico, said if the pumpkins aren’t all harvested soon, those laying in rain-drenched fields could be more susceptible to disease and rot.
Brian Reeves of Reeves Farm in Lysander said by Friday he had nearly all his pumpkins out of the fields and in storage. He sells mostly to wholesalers like Wegmans, which turns around and sells the pumpkins in its stores.
Growers say prices are about the same as last year — from 20 cents to 25 cents a pound or $5 to $6 for the large pumpkins.
Ruby, Reeves and Madison County grower Terry Mosher said the crop is extraordinary this year, with nice quality and nice size. They said the handles are firm and good, the pumpkins shapes and color are good and there is little to no disease or insect problems.
“We got plenty of rain while they were growing and nice heat,” Ruby said. “Bees don’t work in the heat, but they pollinated before the heat wave came in the summer.”
Mosher and Reeves said they actually are happy the pumpkins are early. When they ripen late, there always is the hazard of frost coming early and stunting them or killing them.
“I’d rather have them ripe a little early then have them predict a frost on Oct. 1 and have the pumpkins half green yet in the field,” Reeves said.
And while the growers began harvesting about Labor Day, pumpkins are a crop that stores well as long as they are kept at about 50 degrees. A total of 6,000 acres of pumpkins were harvested in New York state in 2009, up from the 5,900 acres harvested in 2008, according to National Agricultural Statistics Service.
But production was down from 2008 to 2009, mostly because of all the rain last summer that squashed many pumpkins. Growers produced 750 million pounds of pumpkins in the state in 2009 with a value of $21.75 million, compared to 106 million pounds produced in 2008 with a value of $38.4 million.
Reeves has about eight acres, Ruby a half acre and Mosher two acres. Reeves said he will sell about 200 bins of big pumpkins, 50 bins of pie pumpkins, 800 half-bushels of mini pumpkins and a couple thousand half-bushels of gourds.
Statewide, this year’s pumpkin crop is better than normal, state agriculture officials say.
Jessica Ziehm, speaking for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, said throughout the state, growers received the right balance of rain and sun to create “a very nice pumpkin crop.”
She said there was no drought to keep the pumpkins from growing and not too much rain that would produce mold, mildew, fungus and other problems for the pumpkins.
And it doesn’t matter whether consumers want to buy their pumpkins now. They should last well past Halloween and even into Thanksgiving as long as they are kept in cool temperatures but out of the frost, the experts say.
Contact Debra J. Groom at dgroom@syracuse.com, 470-3254 or 251-5586.
