Pumpkin growers could be facing a nightmare Hallowe’en after the hot summer caused this year’s crop to fruit weeks ahead of schedule.
The warm weather has caused Britain’s pumpkins to mature ahead of time, meaning thousands are ripe and ready for picking two months before Hallowe’en.
The likely scenario is they will be left in the field until mid-October, when people start buying pumpkins to carve.
But if the autumn weather brings a lot of rain, farmers fear that pumpkins will rot in the fields and never make it to the supermarket shelves.
Josh Warren, from Warren’s Fruit Farm in Draycott, Somerset, has hundreds of pumpkins that are ready to be harvested two months before their peak season.
He planted the pumpkin seeds in mid-May, saying: “They should be ready by mid-September onwards. Normally they are green throughout August and they start turning orange in September.”
Mr Warren stressed that “the hot weather and dry conditions have brought them on a lot earlier. We are holding our breath. The million-dollar question is, will they last until October?
“If it rains for the next eight weeks they will probably be ruined. Too much rain and they could rot in the field.”
Mr Warren expressed his hopes for an early interest from consumers, saying: “The supermarkets are stocking Hallowe’en costumes and stuff so maybe people will also think about buying their pumpkins.”
The UK was hit by four heatwaves this summer, which all saw temperatures rise above 30C, after The Met Office predicted that the season this year was going to be one of the “warmest on record”.
The current highest mean average temperature was set in 2018, with a record of 15.76C. However, this season, based on data up to Aug 25, stands at 16.13C.
Mr Warren also expressed concerns for growers who planted their pumpkin seeds later in the year, saying: “If they were planted later on, like June, then it was too dry and they would have struggled to establish, and they wouldn’t have grown like they should do.”
Emily French from Foxes Farm Produce, Essex, said “this is the earliest harvest we have had in 15 years”.
She explained how pumpkins, which are 90 per cent water, need about 16 gallons of water per plant to survive.
The dry conditions this summer have meant that they have had to rely on their own water sources, or external irrigation to beat the hot summer.
However, some farmers struggled more than others, reaping no crop at all this year, according to Ms French.
She highlighted how a farmer she knows can “normally supply others, but this year he has no pumpkin patch” because of bad yields.
Last month, farmers warned that the unusually warm and dry weather this year could lead to a shortage in peas.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said pea growers in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and East Yorkshire have experienced up to a 30 per cent drop in the number of peas that have been picked and processed so far.
Rachel Hallos, the NFU vice-president, said: “With the likelihood of a changing climate in the future, we must take our food security seriously.
“Measures from productivity, and research and development funding support, to finding new varieties that can withstand our changing climate – to more collaboration with Government and its agencies and water companies – will help ensure farmers have access to a clean supply of water so they can continue to produce sustainable food for the nation.”