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It's the Great Pumpkin season for Texas producers. Problems in other areas are bringing on a bright orange fall for Texas' crop, according to a Texas Cooperative Extension agent.
"Harvest is strong and heavy. We're moving lots of pumpkins and have been for two weeks. The producers have been shipping them all over: Fort Worth, Kansas City, Washington, D.C. and New York," said J.D. Ragland, Cooperative Extension agent in Floyd County.
According to an article in the Detroit News, crops in Michigan and other northern states were damaged by a cool, wet summer. With that supply down, the demand for Texas pumpkins is higher.
Floydada's annual "Punkin Day," held on the second Saturday of October, draws people from all over the country.
This celebration may seem strange for a tiny Panhandle town, but as the world's leading producer, Floyd County grows nearly 1 million pumpkins a year. Residents proudly refer to Floydada as "Pumpkin Capital U.S.A."
Ragland said the majority of pumpkins produced in the county are jack-o-lantern size: 6 to 12 pounds.
"They're probably 60 percent of production," Ragland said. "The next most popular is the pie pumpkin; they're 5 to 7 pounds. That's 10 percent of our acreage."
The large specialty pumpkins, called the Big Macs, weigh in at 50-300 pounds and are 10 percent of the planted acreage, he said.
Harvesting pumpkins is very labor intensive, Ragland said. To harvest the Big Macs, a tow sack is spread on the ground, and four field workers roll the pumpkin on to it. Each worker holds one corner of the sack and carefully lifts the pumpkin onto a waiting trailer.
Fortunately, growers there planted more acreage this year.
"Average [planted acreage] is 1,800 acres, and this year we planted 2,000 acres. We're getting 7 cents per pound; that's slightly above average," Ragland said. "Low is 5 cents, and high is 10 cents. So we're right in the mid-dle, as the season progresses that might increase." An extra bonus for Texas producers was the favorable weather: More pumpkins were produced per acre.
"Normally we produce 20,000 pounds per acre. This year we've got about 22,000 pounds [per acre]," he said. "Mainly it's due to the extra rain we got, which caused rapid growth through the growing season. It also caused the pumpkins to be larger in terms of weight."
While the moisture was good for rapid growth, Ragland said it also created problems.
"We've had to watch for powdery mildew. Any time you have a lot of moisture, you run the risk [of getting mildew]," he said.
Dr. Frank Dainello, Extension horticulturalist, said normally Floyd County doesn't have much problem with disease.
"Perhaps the major reason that this area has become a pumpkin production region," he said, "is due to the fact that it does not have as severe a problem with viruses as exist in other vegetable production regions in Texas."
According to Ragland, the most favorable market for pumpkins is before Thanksgiving.
