Drought doesn't hurt WNY pumpkin crop

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) - Looking for that perfect pumpkin? Surprisingly, it may not be as difficult as you may have thought in light of the summer drought that we just went through.

"There's not quite as many of the big ones, but there's plenty. And,I keep telling people that I guarantee every kid will have a pumpkin. There won't be anyone in western New York that doesn't have a pumpkin for Halloween," said Dave Spoth of Spoth's Farm Market on Transit Road in Clarence.

Mike Badding, who operates of the last farms within the Town of Amherst, Badding Bros. Farm Market in East Amherst, said, "Being a dry year, it's a little easier for the bees to come out and pollinate, so there's good crop of pumpkins. They're just not really big."

That hasn't been the case nationally, where in some places drought conditions resulted in a significant decrease in the pumpkin crop and as much as a 30 percent increase in cost. In our region, irrigation and various planting methods, including fall plowing, helped to produce this year's crop even though we came up short on rainwater.

"About two-thirds of the pumpkins were irrigated and the last third wasn't. You can tell right where the irrigation stopped; the pumpkins are half the size and one half the volume," added Spoth.

So is the cost any higher this summer?

"A little bit, a little bit, not significantly. Just a little, but not like the apple crop," said Spoth.

We found most farm stands will either charge no more than last year or tack on just a modest 5 to 10 cent-per-pound increase to cover increasing supply costs.

And even though is was a weekday, we found plenty of people shopping for their perfect pumpkin Wednesday.

"They are going in my little pumpkin circle in the my yard...my pumpkin patch," said Pat Lieneck.

Just make sure to look for a pumpkin with a long firm stem, but don't carry it by the stem!