ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NEW KENT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Forget the grin. Better carve a frown on the face of your jack-o-lantern this Halloween.
The rainy, cool summer has left a shambles of Virginia's leading county for growing pumpkins.
Stewart Taylor of Toano, a pumpkin grower for 35 years, said this year's crop was about the worst he's seen. He estimated he lost half of the 30 acres planted at his Fairview Farm.
For Mattie Burch of Barhamsville, the entire crop was lost - not because of the weather, though. Deer ate them.
Usually, the Burches decorate their front yard for Halloween. But not this year.
``Losing the whole crop, I don't have my heart in it,'' Burch said Monday.
Nationally, pumpkin shippers expect good supplies, according to ``The Packer,'' a Kansas City publication for commercial vegetable producers.
But this is the second straight year for a local shortage of pumpkins.
``It was dry weather last year. This year it was wet weather,'' said Herman Hohlt, an extension vegetable specialist with Virginia Tech.
Some places in eastern Virginia had up to 25 inches of rain in July, when the pumpkin vines begin to run along the ground, said Hohlt. The normal rainfall is about 4 inches, he said.
Some fields were so wet that farmers couldn't spray fungicides to control diseases that damage the vines and leaves. Water stood in soggy fields and rotted the roots of the plants.
How well the pumpkins grew depended a lot on how well the soil drained, said Paul Davis, agriculture extension agent for New Kent County, Virginia's leading pumpkin producer.
Pumpkins grow best in sandy, well-drained soil, he said.
Some growers who always open their fields each fall to visits by schoolchildren turned to out-of-state suppliers so they would have enough to show.
Charles Davis of Eltham decided to give up on his entire 10 acres of approximately 8,000 pumpkins, the rot was so bad.
``We raised them, but we're not going to pick any because we had a complete disaster,'' he said. ``We didn't want to sell a product we weren't proud of.''
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