America's pumpkin growers faced wild weather challenges

Farmers in Illinois and Indiana say they were able to grow a decent pumpkin crop, despite some drastic weather swings throughout the season.

Transcript

00:00 From orange giants to tiny jack-o-lanterns, 2023 has been a tough year for pumpkin growers

00:07 across America.

00:08 "The weather for this year was really a roller coaster."

00:11 More than half of the country has been dry or in a drought, including parts of Illinois,

00:17 the top pumpkin-producing state in the country.

00:19 "We produce anywhere between 70 to 90 percent of our processing pumpkins in the country."

00:24 Regela Scavuzzo with Illinois Farm Bureau says some growers dealt with dry fields, others

00:31 saw too much rain.

00:32 "We actually ended up with a pretty decent year.

00:35 We have really, really good soil for pumpkin production."

00:38 In Indiana, the number two pumpkin-growing state, varieties that take longer to grow

00:43 fare better than faster-growing gourds.

00:46 "The stuff that we planted in the middle of June did absolutely terribly because it just

00:50 didn't rain for several weeks there."

00:53 Michael Hodge, the president of the Indiana Pumpkin Growers Association, says his harvest

00:58 turned out better than recent years, with 40,000 pumpkins picked from his 10 acres.

01:04 "Probably from a temperature perspective, we had probably one of the best growing summers

01:09 we could ask for."

01:10 In California, the number three pumpkin state, a snowy winter and very wet spring led to

01:16 one of the strongest harvests in years.

01:19 Because billion-dollar pumpkin industry keeps growing, and farmers say they're preparing

01:24 for bigger challenges in the future.

01:26 "The one thing we can't control is the weather."

01:29 For AccuWeather, I'm Bill Waddell.

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