Drought conditions across the U.S. strain pumpkin patches

CROSS PLAINS, Tenn. – Many pumpkin patches won’t look the same this year as drought conditions across the United States leave farmers’ fields bare.

The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska estimates that about 38% of the US is experiencing a ‘moderate drought’, which the National Weather Service defines as damaged crops, low water wells and developing water shortages.

Pumpkin farmers, including those in Cross Plains, Tennessee, are dealing with drought conditions for the second year in a row. Stephen Freeland’s pumpkins grow on 14 acres of bone dry soil. He said pumpkins are trying to adapt to the dry conditions, but most won’t survive.

“Because of the drought. I don’t know. We’re probably down 15 to 20 percent,” Freelanad said. “It’s just a roulette of rain. Who gets the rain and when?”

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Freeland plants pumpkin seeds in June and July. He said the first set of pumpkins harvested received adequate water and came out normal. But the seeds he later planted endured weeks of heat but no rain.

“The problem with pumpkins is that when the temperature gets to 95, 98 degrees, the pumpkin plant wants to abort the fruit it just pollinated,” Freeland said.

Freeland said when the weather gets too hot, squash plants begin to wilt and their flowers fall off more easily. On a hot day, flowers stay open for a shorter period of time, which affects pollination.

Farmers say lack of rain and prolonged heat can cause pumpkin plants to wilt, which can affect pollination. (Fox News)

Farmers have found ways to alleviate the stress caused by drought. Freeland added drip irrigation lines to his pumpkin patch by pumping water from his well. A water line then allows smaller amounts of water to drip directly onto the plant’s roots.

Agricultural adaptation can be costly and force farmers to raise their prices even though their squashes are smaller.

“The downside is if you have to raise prices but your size isn’t there, that makes it a little bit more difficult,” Freeland said. “They’re just smaller and less marketable.”

Some farmers set up drip irrigation lines to slowly drip water directly onto the pumpkin’s roots. (Fox News)

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Katie Osborne’s family farm includes 20 acres of pumpkins and 70 head of cattle. Osborne doesn’t run an irrigation line on his farm because he says the cows need water from ponds to stay hydrated.

“We are praying hard for rain during these critical times,” Osborne said. “We don’t want to irrigate the ponds because we don’t want to take the water source away from the cattle.”

Osbourn said his farm is producing about 30% fewer pumpkins than normal this year. He said timing was important to monitor next year’s weather, but it was too late to do anything about this year’s harvest.

“We also need to be strategic. We know we’ll get more rain in late May, early June,” Osborne said. he said. “Some of our prize winners and bigger jacks, we need to go ahead and place them at that time.”

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Freeland and Osborne said lots of rain could do more harm than good, especially if the ground is dry and hard. They are hoping for a light rain that can wet the soil before they start planting winter crops.