Mid-season turnaround boosts pumpkin production
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By DANIEL GRANT | FarmWeek
Results of pumpkin harvest so far in Illinois, the nation’s leading producer of canned pumpkins, point to an ample supply of the fall and holiday favorite.
This, despite drought conditions in May and June that returned to many areas in August and threatened both the commercial and ornamental pumpkin crops in many areas of the state.
“With the drought we were in, we were a week or two from losing a lot (of the pumpkin crop),” John Ackerman, owner/operator of Ackerman Family Farms in Morton, told FarmWeek. “But we got rain in late June, and it made all the difference. We feel very blessed.”
Ackerman grew about 160 varieties of ornamental pumpkins this year. He also previously raised canning pumpkins.
“We are having a good harvest,” he said. “A few varieties didn’t handle the drought well, but the vast majority came in above expectations.”
David Uhlman, a farmer from Tremont, grew food-grade pumpkins this season under contract for Nestle Libby’s in Morton. The company’s plant in Morton, the “pumpkin capital of the world,” produces about 85% of canned pumpkins nationwide each year.
“Overall, for the hot weather and lack of rain, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. There are many blessings out here,” Uhlman told FarmWeek. “We had a couple fields (of commercial pumpkins). The rain made a difference this year in the tonnage of pumpkins harvested.”
One of Uhlman’s pumpkin fields averaged about 21.5 tons per acre while another that received more timely showers made about 32 tons per acre.
“I’m pretty pleased. Good weather continues for harvest, so a lot (of the pumpkin crop) is harvested already,” he said.
All pumpkins produced by Nestle Libby’s, including the Dickinson pumpkin variety Libby’s special seed were bred from, are a variety of squash belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family or gourd family (which also includes melons and cucumbers), according to the company’s website.
Libby’s famously uses nothing but 100% pumpkin in its canned products that appear on grocery shelves across the nation.
“I’ve heard the yields are average to slightly above average (for the lighter-colored, food-grade pumpkins, not to be confused with ornamental varieties or Jack-o-lanterns),” Ackerman said.
“Pumpkins like it dry and, even though it was exceptionally dry, some spots caught very timely rains,” he continued. “I’ve heard of no processing pumpkin fields that are a disaster.”
Elsewhere, Steve Buxton, who runs Buxton’s Garden Farm & Flower Shop near Sullivan with his wife, Paula, also reported quality crops of both ornamental and processing pumpkins in his area.
“Commercial and ornamental pumpkins look excellent,” Buxton said. “I know there are some areas that didn’t have good luck with pumpkins. But we got rain late and sometimes pumpkins respond to that.”
The market helps distribute ornamental pumpkins around the state as farmers who have a bountiful crop often sell a portion of it to farmers and markets in areas that experienced a short crop. Most pumpkin farms and local markets, therefore, should have an ample supply this season.
• This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.
