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Ohio Pumpkin Crop Damaged by Heavy Rain, Then Dry Weather
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A rainy planting season and drier weather later has left Ohio with a damaged pumpkin crop, though that might be affecting the selection more than the prices consumers are paying.
Co-owner Charla Devine of Devine Farms in Hebron tells The Columbus Dispatch that too much rain led to a crop failure. She lost two to three acres of pumpkins that would’ve been sold at her farm stand.
Ohio State University Extension educator Jim Jasinski says some growers got a double punch from the weather. After the rain subsided, a dry August further hurt the growth of pumpkins, a crop that is nearly 90 percent water.
The Blade newspaper in Toledo reports this year’s pumpkins didn’t grow to their expected size unless farmers irrigated their fields.