Pumpkin farmers in the Maritimes experiencing low yields of produce this year

Orange pumpkins are a hallmark of autumn, but this year’s harvest has proven to be different. Extreme weather patterns have left pumpkin farmers with fewer pumpkins.

“If I were to rate our growing season on a scale from one to 10, I’d probably say two or three. It was not a good season,” said Danny Dill, owner of Howard Dill Enterprises in Windsor, N.S.

For decades, Howard Dill Enterprises has grown an abundance of pumpkins, but during the summer months it became clear to Dill that his yield would come up short.

Realizing that he would not have as many pumpkins, he began making calls to other farms to buy their pumpkins.

“[I] drove down the valley or outside Truro and areas. I mean I was even almost going to go Prince Edward Island but the problem there is the cost to truck them over,” said Dill.

He has already bought nearly 6,000 pumpkins.

However, he is not alone. Growers across the province have nearly empty fields because of the weather the region received throughout the summer.

“It’s been a really tough growing year. We’ve just had too much rain and the disease pressure was really high,” said William Spurr, president of Horticulture Nova Scotia Association.

Everything from onions to broccoli suffered through months of torrential rain.

Spurr said he alone suffered a 25 per cent loss of onions from his yield. He said other farmers in the province have suffered greater losses with their crops.

“It’s a huge loss. Other farmers have lost up to 50 per cent of their crop and even the stuff their picking isn’t the quality they were hoping for,” said Spurr, who owns a farm in Wilmot, N.S.

In the last few years, Dill said he has noticed a difference in the amount of produce he grows, and that it has decreased.

However, he said it has been nothing compared to recently, where extreme weathers like hurricanes, droughts, followed with lots of rain made it impossible to get on the field to work.

“Even my giant pumpkins, I only had a chance I think once to give them some extra fertilization during the growing season,” said Dill.

Dill hopes this season is not a sign of what the future of farming will look like.

“The weather can’t get any worse. If it does, I can’t see a lot of us farms even surviving or getting by,” he said.

A short harvest season, with the hope that next year they do not have to go searching for pumpkins.

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