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In the News - September 2009
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| PUMPKIN PROBLEMS – Even resistant varieties are having a hard time fending off diseases such as powdery mildew. (2003 University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture file photo by Craig Andersen.) |
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Wet weather across the Southeast and eastern Midwest and is creating a scary scenario of its own: a Halloween pumpkin shortage, Craig Andersen, extension horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, said Tuesday.
"Arkansas pumpkins will be affected by the weather, as have all pumpkins across the Southeast," he said. Wet weather has also affected crops in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, major pumpkin producing states.
"It's just perfect weather for plant disease up here: 100 percent humidity, it's warming and its rained for days with no sunshine," Andersen said from his office in Fayetteville. "If you're a plant pathologist, you're having a great year."
Arkansas pumpkin growers had a pretty good year with May and June being almost perfect for starting a crop.
"July turned cool and could've been better and August was OK," he said. "But this is ridiculous. If I could've picked the worst thing for pumpkins, it would be two weeks of rain when what we need is dry weather. "
Andersen said many varieties have a resistance to powdery mildew, "but even they can't take this much pressure. This is over the top."
Halloween and harvest pumpkins have begun to appear in grocery stores and nurseries, but are mostly "imports" from Texas and New Mexico.
"My recommendation is to buy them early," Andersen said. "The chance of seeing them later is not going to be good."
Arkansans typically raise 1,000 to 3,000 acres of pumpkins each year, he said. "This year, I would say we are probably in the middle, maybe 1,500 to 2,000 acres."
Most farms have fewer than 25 acres, many only 5 to 10 acres of pumpkins. Very few have 100 acres or more.
Pumpkins are a fairly easy, relatively inexpensive and low-risk crop to grow, he said.
"Growers stand to make a little money," Andersen said. "They aren't going to get rich, but they aren't going to go broke either."
The Cooperative Extension Service is a part of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
September 22, 2009
By Mary Hightower
U of A Division of Agriculture
Media Contact: Elizabeth Fortune
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2120
efortune@uaex.edu
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