How the prolonged drought impacted Northland pumpkins

Although the pumpkins are now ripe and ready for picking, there were some drought impacts that Northland farmers are reporting.

Farmer Doug says he got lucky with his pumpkins because of his soil. The soil on his farm is made up of more clay and silt which traps moisture compared to soil with a sandy consistency.

He also adds that Tuesday nights rain really did not help their pumpkins at all. Saying, “They need their moisture back in July and early August when they are bulking up at this point they are pretty much ripe they are done. So the rain really has very little impact on this year’s pumpkin crop.”

Doug Hoffbauer claims the drought did impact the size of this years pumpkins. He says that his are not as big as they used to be and that’s because of the lack of rain.

Hoffbauer says their Christmas Trees were hit more than their pumpkins. The trees take multiple years to grow to the right size, and if there are multiple bad seasons in a row the trees die off at an early stage, or they can’t keep up the growth.

Farmer Doug says that this year he will have enough Christmas trees and pumpkins to sell but is hoping that next year is a better season. You can check out Farmer Doug’s website here.