Rain, fungus keeping NJ pumpkin crop low

SUSSEX COUNTY — A combination of weather, fungus and hungry deer has cut into New Jersey’s pumpkin crop, forcing many growers to buy from suppliers as far away as Michigan and Canada. Some farmers say they’ve never seen such a meager crop. “Don’t ask me, I don’t know. You gotta go higher than me to find out,” Harry Vance, owner of Pochuck Valley Farms in Sussex County, said last weekend. Actually, going lower might yield the answer. Agriculture experts say a soil fungus that thrives on moisture doomed much of this year’s crop, aided by late August downpours. Heavy rains in June followed by a hot summer also didn’t help. The low yield is particularly tough for smaller farmers who depend on pumpkin sales as a seasonal draw. Skeeter Kielblock, owner of Hillview Farms in Morris County, said he lost 90 percent of his pumpkin crop in New Jersey and has had pumpkins trucked in from Vermont. He has had to raise prices an extra 10 cents per pound. Glen DePiero owns a pumpkin patch in Montvale and said he lost about half of his five-acre crop. DePiero said he has had to import pumpkins from Canada and may have to charge a dollar more than usual to make up the difference. New Jersey has 244 farms that grow pumpkins encompassing nearly 1,500 acres, according to the federal Department of Agriculture’s 2002 census.