By Clint Thompson
A prolonged heat wave scorched the Southeast this summer. Not only did it make life uncomfortable for those who had to work outside in the hot conditions, the weather conditions impacted pumpkin yields for farmers in the region. That is according to Drew Echols, owner of Jaemor Farms in Alto, Georgia.
“Yields are not what they should be,” Echols said. “We had 30-plus days of 90-plus degree temperatures, from the end of July through August. Those things don’t like that heat. They abort a lot of fruit, so our yields are down from what they should be.
“Once every five or six years, you get that here in Georgia. That’s why a lot of people don’t grow them here.”
Echols said this year’s crop is very, very high quality. It has been real clean with minimal disease pressure. The crop is some of the best quality he has seen in a while. However, it is the yields that has Echols concerned moving forward.
“This is the one that kind of makes you scratch your head. If I did it like this two years in a row, year number three might look a lot different as far as how many I actually planted,” Echols said. “From what I’m hearing, it’s not the greatest yield all the way up the East Coast, because it’s pretty warm all the way up north; in Virginia and Pennsylvania. They’re not just phenomenal yields up there either.”
Echols said pumpkin demand is very high because the crop is short across the region.