MECHANICSBURG, Ill (WAND) - Illinois produces tons of pumpkins each year, but an invasive fungus has ruined the crops of many farmers. The fungus growth means these pumpkins rot prematurely and can never be used to sell.
For Indian Knoll Pumpkin Patch, this affected a lot of their most money-making type.
"I'd say we lost 25 to 30% of our crop," said Penny Bliler, co-owner of the patch. She says it's due to the large amount of rain they've had.
"The fungus problem started easily in July and it was hard to get in to spray as much as we like to spray because it was still raining and then the heat on top of all the rain really hurt the crop," Bliler said. And the mix of heat did not help.
"They had ample moisture and then 90 degrees just was really hard on these great big pumpkins that were ripe," she explained. As Bliler showed WAND, each of the bad pumpkins started going bad when a bacterial spot appeared on them.
"It was devastating to walk out here thinking you were gonna get a whole wagon load and about the first 50 feet of the pumpkin patch you went halfway down in your row and you still were looking for more pumpkins. So it was a sobering moment to realize so many were laying there rotten in the beginning," Bliler said.
However, she said there are plenty of pumpkins left there to purchase because they planted extra this year in anticipation of a busy year, especial jack-o-lantern and pie pumpkins that fought better against the fungus. For more information on their patch, visit indianknollpumpkins.com
