By Shala Gean
Communications Specialist
A week of damp weather during the middle of pumpkin harvest in Floydada—known as the Pumpkin Capital, USA—cost some growers dozens of truckloads.
Jason Pyle with Pumpkin Pyle in Floydada said his 700-acre crop was full of promise until the rainfall hit. The area received about two inches of rain. Combine that with dew and fog, and Pyle’s fields were too muddy, delaying his harvest.
“We really couldn’t harvest for a week to a week-and-a-half. We couldn’t get through the fields because of so much mud sticking to the pumpkins,” Pyle told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network.
The region usually receives rainfall during harvest season, but it dries out within two to three days. But this year, the long period of wet, foggy mornings kept them out of the field for more than a week.
“We missed quite a few loads in that timeframe just trying to get our pumpkins out of the field,” Pyle said.
Their biggest challenge was keeping the crop dry. Pumpkins will mold if they stay wet for an extended period, according to Pyle. Temperature differences from cold to warmer environments during shipping can also cause mold to grow.
Pyle raises 50 to 70 different varieties of pumpkins, including jack-o-lanterns, specialty pumpkins and ornamentals. His biggest sellers are jack-o-lanterns. They can grow to the size of a volleyball and larger.
He ships mainly to retail stores in Texas and Oklahoma. But this year, he has had an increase in demand from other states, like Louisiana, because of the hurricanes.
“We have had a lot more phone calls from people down the East Coast,” Pyle said. “They’ve had bad hurricanes come through and literally just wipe their crops out.”
The weather didn’t affect only retail stores. The delay also impacted pumpkin patches that Pyle sells to.
He said it was too early to estimate how many pumpkins he lost due to the rainfall, but it’s close to 20 semi-loads. Each load holds 52 bins, and the bins weigh about 800 pounds.
The weather has since improved enough for area farmers to continue harvest.
“It seems like every day its getting a little easier to get through the fields, and the pumpkins are getting cleaner and cleaner the more days that it stays dry,” Pyle said. “It doesn’t look like it really has hurt the quality of the pumpkin right now. I think it still looks good, and I still think we’re going to have a decent year.”
Pyle expects harvest to last until Halloween.