Hot, wet summer unkind to Central Mass. crops
By
Elaine Thompson
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Aug 16, 2018 at 9:25 PM
Updated Aug 17, 2018 at 9:05 AM
It was so hot and dry during the spring that Jeff Howe decided to
plant some melons and winter squash in a low area at his 200-acre farm.
But Mr. Howe, who owns the New Braintree-based Howe Farm and Gardens, hadn’t counted on so many lingering days of hot, wet weather this summer.
In the past 30 days alone, Central Massachusetts has received two to three times the normal rainfall, according to the National Weather Service. More rain is in the forecast for Friday and Saturday.
The result is that Mr. Howe and some other farmers and nursery operators are seeing signs of disease on their plants, as well as fewer customers and other problems caused by the wet humid weather.
“I thought we would have a dry summer and the winter squash would do good down there. But that didn’t happen,” Mr. Howe said this week. “There’s been so much wet weather that the fields can’t drain quick enough and it’s hurting the crops quite a bit.”
Mr. Howe, who also operates a farm stand in Paxton, said the 20 to 25 low-lying acres where he planted winter squash and melons are under water.
“That section is pretty much done. The vine crops that lay low lay in it (rain and mud) and get saturated,” he said, adding that his farm has a lot of clay soil, which retains the rain. “There’s nothing you can do about it. Just pick what you can and hope for the best.”
Other farmers - including Whittier Farms’ Wayne Whittier and his children, John Whittier and Samantha Staebner - are waiting for their land to dry out so they can assess any damage.
Mrs. Staebner said the fields at the 400-acre Sutton farm are currently too muddy and soft for a tractor and other heavy equipment, which would just sink into the ground and damage the crops.
“It’s been so hot, sticky, humid, and with all the rain, we have to
wait to see if any fungus or disease has started on any of the crop,”
she said. “We’ll start checking in a couple of days if this sunshine
sticks around.”
She said workers continue to pick vegetables, but some blueberries were lost as a result of the weather.
“When it rains, you can’t pick the blueberries because they won’t keep. You have to use them or freeze them right away,” she explained. “This rain has been so heavy at times that it has just knocked the blueberries right off the bushes.”
Amy E. Parker said the weather has wiped out some of her more than 4,000 lavender plants at The Farm at SummitWynds in Holden.
The farm transitioned from a horse farm with cows and pigs over the years to a lavender farm last year with 2,500 plants. Another 1,500 lavender plants were added this year. The plants are used for a variety of products, including in food, beauty products, soaps, lotions, oils and sachets.
“Lavender doesn’t like to be wet,” Ms. Parker explained. “We’re keeping an eye on some areas. I might have to put some more drainage in some areas to prevent this in the future.”
Hank Kennen, co-owner of Pleasant View Nursery in Paxton, said sales have been slow because of the rainy weekends. But customers are coming in to get products to rid their lawns and shrubs of fungus caused by the rain and humidity.
“The main issue is it’s just a lot of fungus problem on the lawns and
fruit trees. A lot of the trees have fungus on their leaves because of
too much rain and humidity. I really think the humidity is more of an
issue than the rain,” he said.
William “Kip” Graham, Worcester County executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, said he has received a few calls from farmers with complaints about weather damage.
“We’re investigating that now,” he said, adding that there are programs available to help farmers. “We’ve had a dry spring and now a wet summer. That can cause some issues for some of the crops, with disease getting into them. When we have a lot of wet humid weather that could be difficult to control.”
Katie Campbell-Nelson, extension educator for the vegetable program at UMass Extension at UMass-Amherst, said the weather is causing more disease this year, but it isn’t the only cause. Some pathogens arrive when storms blow spores from the south, causing outbreaks. And there are diseases that may be present and given wet conditions, they will show up and become a problem, she said.
The weird thing about the storms is that some farms got several inches of rain while farms in other areas only got one inch. Even with the above-average rainfall throughout the state, the southeastern part of the state is still abnormally dry, she said. Some farms are seeing sunburned onions and other vegetables and others have tomatoes that are cracking because there’s too much water.
There are two major diseases that affect vine crops including pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash: powdery mildew characterized by white spores on the fruit, and downy mildew, which has yellow on top and gray fuzz underneath the leaf. The two are completely different and require different types of treatment, she said.
“It totally depends on where in the state you are, but it’s probably not going to be the best year for pumpkins,” Ms. Campbell-Nelson said.
The weeks of wet, humid, hot weather, however, haven’t caused a
problem for everyone. Some vegetables, including corn, like this type of
weather.
Ed Bemis, co-owner of Bemis Farms Nursery in Spencer, said all the rain has staved off trees beginning to turn autumn colors like they sometimes do in mid-August, and it has helped rejuvenate trees that suffered gypsy moth damage earlier this year.
“From the overall native landscape point of view, it’s been great,” he said.
The extra moisture has been helpful for farmers like Tim Wheeler, owner of the seventh-generation, 175-year-old family-owned Indian Head Farm in Berlin, where the soil is light sandy loam.
“For us, because of the crops we raise and the land we’re on, it hasn’t hit us terribly bad,” Mr. Wheeler said. “When it’s wet, I can frequently get into a field and cultivate and plant because lighter soil drains well and dries out pretty fast.” But like some other farmers, he expressed concern that the heavy rains prevent bees from pollinating plants, impeding reproduction.
Janice Wentworth said because her Warren Farm & Sugarhouse in North Brookfield is small, just shy of nine acres, she can circumvent the effects that some other farmers experience during this type of weather.
The farm specializes in heirloom tomatoes, a vine crop that is more susceptible to disease. But her tomatoes are grown in “high tunnel” greenhouses.
“It gives you more control over the weather and it extends the season
in either direction so you can continue to grow crops during the fall
and early winter,” Ms. Wentworth said. “We’re small so we can do that.”
Owners of large farms like Howe Farm and Gardens, which lost 20 to 25 acres of winter squash and melons to the recent rains, have to depend more on Mother Nature.
“I think a lot of farmers are going to be affected by all this rain,” owner Jeff Howe said. “We still have a ways to go, but we’re running out of time with some crops. We’re in the middle of August. In September, we have cooler days and cooler nights.”
But Mr. Howe, who owns the New Braintree-based Howe Farm and Gardens, hadn’t counted on so many lingering days of hot, wet weather this summer.
In the past 30 days alone, Central Massachusetts has received two to three times the normal rainfall, according to the National Weather Service. More rain is in the forecast for Friday and Saturday.
The result is that Mr. Howe and some other farmers and nursery operators are seeing signs of disease on their plants, as well as fewer customers and other problems caused by the wet humid weather.
“I thought we would have a dry summer and the winter squash would do good down there. But that didn’t happen,” Mr. Howe said this week. “There’s been so much wet weather that the fields can’t drain quick enough and it’s hurting the crops quite a bit.”
Mr. Howe, who also operates a farm stand in Paxton, said the 20 to 25 low-lying acres where he planted winter squash and melons are under water.
“That section is pretty much done. The vine crops that lay low lay in it (rain and mud) and get saturated,” he said, adding that his farm has a lot of clay soil, which retains the rain. “There’s nothing you can do about it. Just pick what you can and hope for the best.”
Other farmers - including Whittier Farms’ Wayne Whittier and his children, John Whittier and Samantha Staebner - are waiting for their land to dry out so they can assess any damage.
Mrs. Staebner said the fields at the 400-acre Sutton farm are currently too muddy and soft for a tractor and other heavy equipment, which would just sink into the ground and damage the crops.
She said workers continue to pick vegetables, but some blueberries were lost as a result of the weather.
“When it rains, you can’t pick the blueberries because they won’t keep. You have to use them or freeze them right away,” she explained. “This rain has been so heavy at times that it has just knocked the blueberries right off the bushes.”
Amy E. Parker said the weather has wiped out some of her more than 4,000 lavender plants at The Farm at SummitWynds in Holden.
The farm transitioned from a horse farm with cows and pigs over the years to a lavender farm last year with 2,500 plants. Another 1,500 lavender plants were added this year. The plants are used for a variety of products, including in food, beauty products, soaps, lotions, oils and sachets.
“Lavender doesn’t like to be wet,” Ms. Parker explained. “We’re keeping an eye on some areas. I might have to put some more drainage in some areas to prevent this in the future.”
Hank Kennen, co-owner of Pleasant View Nursery in Paxton, said sales have been slow because of the rainy weekends. But customers are coming in to get products to rid their lawns and shrubs of fungus caused by the rain and humidity.
William “Kip” Graham, Worcester County executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, said he has received a few calls from farmers with complaints about weather damage.
“We’re investigating that now,” he said, adding that there are programs available to help farmers. “We’ve had a dry spring and now a wet summer. That can cause some issues for some of the crops, with disease getting into them. When we have a lot of wet humid weather that could be difficult to control.”
Katie Campbell-Nelson, extension educator for the vegetable program at UMass Extension at UMass-Amherst, said the weather is causing more disease this year, but it isn’t the only cause. Some pathogens arrive when storms blow spores from the south, causing outbreaks. And there are diseases that may be present and given wet conditions, they will show up and become a problem, she said.
The weird thing about the storms is that some farms got several inches of rain while farms in other areas only got one inch. Even with the above-average rainfall throughout the state, the southeastern part of the state is still abnormally dry, she said. Some farms are seeing sunburned onions and other vegetables and others have tomatoes that are cracking because there’s too much water.
There are two major diseases that affect vine crops including pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash: powdery mildew characterized by white spores on the fruit, and downy mildew, which has yellow on top and gray fuzz underneath the leaf. The two are completely different and require different types of treatment, she said.
“It totally depends on where in the state you are, but it’s probably not going to be the best year for pumpkins,” Ms. Campbell-Nelson said.
Ed Bemis, co-owner of Bemis Farms Nursery in Spencer, said all the rain has staved off trees beginning to turn autumn colors like they sometimes do in mid-August, and it has helped rejuvenate trees that suffered gypsy moth damage earlier this year.
“From the overall native landscape point of view, it’s been great,” he said.
The extra moisture has been helpful for farmers like Tim Wheeler, owner of the seventh-generation, 175-year-old family-owned Indian Head Farm in Berlin, where the soil is light sandy loam.
“For us, because of the crops we raise and the land we’re on, it hasn’t hit us terribly bad,” Mr. Wheeler said. “When it’s wet, I can frequently get into a field and cultivate and plant because lighter soil drains well and dries out pretty fast.” But like some other farmers, he expressed concern that the heavy rains prevent bees from pollinating plants, impeding reproduction.
Janice Wentworth said because her Warren Farm & Sugarhouse in North Brookfield is small, just shy of nine acres, she can circumvent the effects that some other farmers experience during this type of weather.
The farm specializes in heirloom tomatoes, a vine crop that is more susceptible to disease. But her tomatoes are grown in “high tunnel” greenhouses.
Owners of large farms like Howe Farm and Gardens, which lost 20 to 25 acres of winter squash and melons to the recent rains, have to depend more on Mother Nature.
“I think a lot of farmers are going to be affected by all this rain,” owner Jeff Howe said. “We still have a ways to go, but we’re running out of time with some crops. We’re in the middle of August. In September, we have cooler days and cooler nights.”
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