The dry weather this summer is affecting this fall’s pumpkin crop. B.C. farms that do not have irrigation systems are having issues growing enough pumpkins to keep up with the expected demand this Halloween.
At some patches, pumpkins are smaller or not growing at all.
Farmer Shari Tompe from Hazelmere Pumpkin Patch in Surrey has an irrigation system, but says not everyone has been so fortunate.
“I know a lot of pumpkin patches, they don’t have irrigation and water… we are able to water our pumpkins and provide that for them…We may run out of pumpkins sooner than we would like to.”
Tompe estimates there are currently 30,000 to 40,000 pumpkins on her farm and she usually sells about 80 per cent of them. But with this year’s dry summer, Tompe’s pumpkins could sell out.
After losing part of his berry crop to extreme heat conditions two years ago farmer Loren Taves decided to irrigate, a decision that saved his pumpkin patch this year.
“It’s been very challenging, actually,” he said. “There’s been, as you know, very little rain so on the farm we had to react and put in drip irrigation on crops we normally didn’t have to do.”
However not all growers have irrigation leaving some to predict there might be a pumpkin shortage this year.
– With files from Jennifer Palma
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