Many crops a washout as soggy season sloshes on

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GORDON DANIELS

Jim Pitts, of Delta Organic Farm in Amherst, checks his tomatoes that have been damaged by blight.

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GORDON DANIELS

John Omasta, of Hickory Dell Farm in Northampton, picks zinnias. Some flower varieties have developed slowly because of wet weather.

This wet summer has been "a continuous series of fiascoes" for Jim Pitts of Delta Organic Farm in Amherst, with tomatoes damaged by blight, strawberries getting moldy in a few hours, and tractors sinking to their axles in waterlogged fields.

"If you're not philosophical about it, you put a bullet through your head," he said. "Nature has to take its share. This is not a manufacturing process; it's a biological process."

Farmers who last year were hoping for rain are now coping with too much. Most crops are suffering, but not all, and farmers expect diminished yields this year. Consumers are already seeing higher prices.

Tomatoes are going for $4.50 a pound at the Amherst Farmers Market stall run by Jeremy Barker-Plotkin of Simple Gifts Farm. Normally, they are $3.50 at this time of year, and he doesn't expect to see the price decrease to $2.50 in late August, when tomatoes are typically plentiful, he said.

Everything affected

"Nothing I have is unaffected by it," he said. "I'm worried about how things will work out on my financial situation. I'm used to going with the flow and trying now not to worry too much. I will still be in business next year."

Barker-Plotkin's balance sheet is helped by having 230 households prepay for weekly pickup of vegetables. But the wholesale business that makes up 10 to 15 percent of his income will suffer, he said.

His 3,000 tomato plants are "almost a complete bust," with the yield predicted at a third of last year's or less. The heavy rain has leached nutrients out of the soil, and some fields have become inaccessible. Cucumber beetles have been a problem, and some salad-mix plantings have rotted away, he said.

Making hay difficult

In Northampton, Hickory Dell Farm's hay and flowers have been affected by the heavy rain, said owner John Omasta.

"It's a great year for growing hay, but a terrible year for baling it," he said. There have been few days to make hay while the sun shines.

Dairy farmers, already hit by cost increases for fertilizer and fuel, will have to pay a higher price for hay, Omasta said. Those who grow corn for silage may have difficulty getting their machines into the fields, he said.

And bees, which are crucial to pollination of a variety of crops, "don't like working in the rain," he said. Flowers need sunlight and warm weather, too, and this crop has been affected, he said.

Damaging conditions

Just about any crop that touches the ground is impacted, said Wally Czajkowski, of Hadley, including cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and onions. "A lot of the crops you can't pick when they're wet," he said.

Tobacco has also been affected, as the pounding storms, which have included high wind and hail, have damaged the leaves.

"It's affected the quality of certain plantings, it's definitely affected the yields, and it's made harvesting much more difficult," he said.

Czajkowski said he would like to have an extended stretch of warm, dry weather.

Costly damage

In Whately, farmer Hugh Manheim said he has lost two entire plantings of summer squash, totaling 22 acres, a loss he estimates at $100,000. The crops were destroyed from both sitting in water for several days and soil-borne diseases that thrive in wet conditions.

He points to the damaging microburst of July 19 as the start of the problems. "Three to four days after that storm, we got more wet weather and noticed the fields were under water," Manheim said.

One crop that has seemingly done well despite the rain is sweet corn.

"The corn looks pretty good," Manheim said. "It's filled out all the way to the end."

He has also had to skip plantings of radishes, and he may delay putting winter turnips into the ground until conditions improve. Manheim said that potato growers may be the next farmers to feel the impact of the wet weather.

The Szawlowski Potato Farm in Hatfield has just started harvesting, and since the crop grows underground, it's hard to tell how much damage there will be. But Shelley Szawlowski said she expects some will have rotted in the ground.

One lucky farmer

Wallace Hibbard, of Hadley, said he may be one of the more fortunate farmers when there is frequent rain. "On the whole, we like a wet year, but we're the exception to the rule," he said.

At this time of year, Hibbard is growing parsnips, carrots and summer squash, all of which would be affected by standing water.

"I always have nice crops when it rains a lot," he said. "We're doing pretty good because our land is pretty sandy."

Ryan Voiland of Old Depot Gardens in Montague and Red Fire Farm in Granby said that many of his tomatoes are drowning.

"Our first big field of heirloom varieties happens to be in a field with a low spot," he said. "That field filled up with a foot of standing water, killing those plants. The first storm that dropped 3 inches (of rain) in a couple of hours knocked over our plants."

His farm grows six successions of tomatoes on more than four acres. Many have suffered from early blight because their leaves have been wet for 18 to 24 hours a day, and others have a problem with splitting as the fruit takes in too much moisture for its skin, he said.

The winter squash looks healthy, as does the fall spinach, but he's worried about the pumpkins getting too wet.

Good for apples

At Clarkdale Farms in Deerfield, the rainy weather delayed the ripening of peaches but has helped the apples, said Ben Clark.

"The apples are a good size, and we don't have to run irrigation," he said.

The peaches are juicy but not as tasty as last year, when the spring was wet and the summer was dry, ideal conditions for fruit. The plums are ripening later than usual, Clark said.

The pumpkins seem to be getting too much water, he said. "Any soft, low-lying vegetable gets into trouble," he said.

Maryanne Ciesluk, of Deerfield, said her family's sweet corn has not been affected by the extra moisture, but the summer squash and cucumbers have suffered from blight.

"The thing we're worrying about here is flooding," she said. "A few years ago we lost all our pumpkins. We just hold our breath when the storms come through."

Continual challenges

Farmers always face challenges with the weather, said Phil Korman, executive director of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, based in South Deerfield.

"While some may be having problems with their field crops now, others are doing fine," he said. "It looks like it depends on the field, the location, the drainage and the crop."

The best way the community can ensure that local farmers will weather the economic storms is to buy their produce, Korman said.

Greenfield Recorder reporter Diane Broncaccio contributed to this report.