Pumpkin fright? Drought throws growers challenges, but gourds remain available

It took some tricks from growers, but treats can be found by Oklahoma City area residents on the hunt this month for the perfect pumpkin to use as a fall decoration or as the jack-o'-lantern centerpiece for their holiday decorations.

Oklahoma's flash drought this summer certainly has affected some growers across the state, impacting where some retailers are getting their products and pushing prices slightly higher. But pumpkins are available at area retailers and at agritourism-based growing operations, where people can get into the country and explore farmers' fields to pick the perfect gourd.

And shoppers don't seem to be discouraged by what they are seeing.

“They offer a wide variety of pumpkins here, and they are great quality,” said Stephanie Spencer, a customer at the Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market. “It’s a yearly tradition to buy a pumpkin for Halloween, and the slight increase in price isn’t going to stop us from getting one.”

Improvising growers ensure pumpkin crop is available

Renea Kuhn, who operates the Oh My Gourd Pumpkin Patch with her husband, John, near Glencoe, said scarce rainfall definitely affected their annual crops of pumpkins, squash, other types of gourds, red okra, cotton, tomatoes and other products.

But because their farm uses a water well to supply its moisture, the drought affected its operations in other ways.

Fresh, green vegetation growing on the farm early this summer became a magnet for flocking insects that ate about half the farm's annual crops.

The Kuhns replanted what was lost and sprayed everything to protect it from ongoing infestation. But later, as the crops matured, deer began visiting parts of their land, stomping open maturing gourds to eat their meaty interiors.

"They don't have anything else to eat, so they are eating our pumpkins," she said Thursday.

Both issues have added expenses to the farm and reduced the size of pumpkins they are selling, Kuhn said, but she was quick to add they haven't changed the prices, despite this year's problems.

"Typically, we can grow 10 to 12 giant Polar Bear pumpkins (weighing about 50 lbs. each) on a row — our guests love those. This year, because of the bugs issue, we are only getting two or three."

Typical, historic droughts ongoing across Oklahoma

Oklahoma is in the midst of two droughts.

One impacting mainly western Oklahoma has been going for more than a year, starting in August 2021. The second, described as a "flash drought," has been hammering the rest of the state since early June.

State Climatologist Gary McManus said the longer drought is on par with what parts of Oklahoma experienced about a dozen years ago.

The flash drought, he said, is close to setting "historic" marks when it comes to how dry and warm it has been across the state since June 11.

"In terms of how much moisture we have seen and how warm it has been, it is touch and go with a record we set (for that same period of time) in 1956," McManus said.

"This is not anywhere close to being an ordinary drought in Oklahoma. We have had drought before, and we have had combined dryness and heat, but this is just a recipe for a really catastrophic drought across the state," McManus said.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Services' Climate Prediction Center's warmer and drier outlook for Oklahoma over the next three months shows little to be excited about in breaking that pattern.

A cold front expected to pass through Oklahoma this weekend might bring some relief, at least temporarily, said Ryan Bunker, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Norman on Thursday.

"Hopefully, widespread precipitation expected across our area late Saturday into early Sunday will hopefully help alleviate the drought, a little bit," Bunker said.

Weather affects different growers different ways

Leshian Lockwood, who grows and sells pumpkins at the Lil Gladys' Farm and Pumpkin patch in Stigler, said too much moisture and too much heat wiped her annual crop out this summer, forcing her to bring in several hundred replacement pumpkins from another grower to sell.

But another grower, Sandy Garrett, said perfect temperatures and just-right amounts of rainfall on the fields that supplied Garrett Pumpkin Patch with its annual fall crop near Ralston, gave its owners one of the best yields they have seen in years.

"My numbers of pumpkins are excellent, and as for sizes, they are the best I have probably had in about five years," she said.

Meanwhile, Manuel Ortiz, a farmer who has been growing and selling pumpkins for decades out of Pam's Plants and Produce at the Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market, said this year's growing season was different from what he is used to experiencing.

“I’ve been out in the heat many years, but this year it had a different feel,” said Ortiz. “The pumpkins are producing later, and the price of fertilizer and diesel has shot up. A year ago I was paying $34 for a 25-pound bag of fertilizer. Now, I am paying $73 for the same bag.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma drought affecting 2022 pumpkin crop, but prices remain steady