East Tennessee pumpkin crops benefit from summer weather

A pumpkin patch relies on a good summer season.

“It’s the act of God. You never know when you farm if you’re going to have a bumper crop or a failure,” said V.W. Linginfelter, the owner of Deep Well Farm.

With five acres of pumpkins, it’s been a good crop and they’re expecting to harvest 15,000 pumpkins.

“This year we had a guy to set bees in the patch. It’s done a lot better. The weather has cooperated; we’ve had it at the right time. We’ve been able to spray for the right bugs,” said Linginfelter.

The field was planted on July 1, so the sunshine and summer weather play big roles on what we see in October.

“Pumpkins can take hot, dry weather. They get at a certain stage. Seemed like it was hot and dry this year at the right time. Pumpkins grew a lot better. A pumpkin will grow fast. You can see a small one come on in one week, week and a half,” added Linginfelter.

A number of pumpkins are still too ripe to be picked.

“It’s been cool. This time of year we still have a lot of green vines, cooler part has helped on that,” said Linginfelter.

The only setback at the farm is the storms from the last few weeks, keeping some visitors away. However, the pumpkin patches are waiting to round out Linginfelter’s favorite season.

“Just about every child gets one. They get the best pumpkin, the prettiest, always the heaviest. They get the heaviest pumpkin. And that’s our biggest thrill is seeing the smile on their face,” he said.

The corn crop had a good season. The crop was planted in May and the summer weather was a huge help.

The rainy spring we had in East Tennessee, however, caused problems for Deep Well Farm’s watermelon crop. Farmers say it was too wet and weeds overtook that bit of pasture.