SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — The demand for pumpkins is going up with the holidays closing in, but supply is down due to drought conditions over the summer.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service says it means more expensive pumpkins this year.
“We had virtually no rainfall this summer, so the crop relied entirely on irrigation. Getting the crop well established was an issue, but by July most fields looked good because pumpkins do really well in the heat,” said Mark Carroll, AgriLife Extension agriculture agent in Floyd County, northeast of Lubbock.
Floyd County is the top pumpkin-producing area in Texas, and the harvest there should wrap up in the next 10 days.
Despite the dry summer, many pumpkin producers in Texas reported better yields this year than in 2021, when too much rain made conditions too difficult for producers to manage many crops effectively. But other producers were down in yield because of the lack of rain and limited irrigation, in some cases.
Producers typically plant pumpkins between early May and June depending on the production window for harvest. Operations hoping to provide pumpkins for wholesale markets around the state and country want harvest in early September, while producers hoping to fill direct-to-consumer demand want harvest to begin in late September.