WARRENSBURG, Ill. (WAND) - It's no secret that the start of 2019's growing season was soggy.
As pumpkin patches will be opening around central Illinois, WAND News wanted to see how the crop is doing. At Black Bart's Pumpkin Patch, it’s a labor of love for owner Joel Johner.
"I've been doing this since I was 10 years old,” he explained. “It's just been kind of something that's been really fun and interesting to grow up with."
Johner said in 2019, the most interesting challenge has been Mother Nature.
"With the rain coming on quite a bit, it is giving us problems with fungus that we've been able to hold off. It's a constant battle between basically fungus, bugs, and weeds," he said.
Johner said pumpkins prefer drier weather, and so do pumpkin farmers. Standing water in the fields makes it difficult to remove weeds, and he said additional moisture creates a breeding ground for a fungus.
"We always have a little bit of crop that gets lost, but because of the rain we did have to come back through and replant quite a bit,” Johner said. “But we keep on top of it and haven't lost a lot of extra."
Johner said the fungus isn't anything to worry about. He said it's long taken care of before customers pick their perfect pumpkin!
Thanks to diligent efforts at Black Bart's, Johner said they'll be ready to go once their season opens.
"We still need to get a lot of the pumpkins up on the sale area, and we've got to get a lot of the decorations still put up," he said. "That's usually stuff that we have the last couple of weeks that we are basically just running around just trying to get everything set up on time. But it always comes through in the end and we're expecting to have it done just in time this year."
Sept. 14 is Black Bart’s Pumpkin Patch's opening day. They’re open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
