St. Johns - Rows of orange pumpkins lined the edges of each section of Andy Todosciuk's pumpkin patch, waiting to be boxed up and transported to his farm market.
What's missing is the usual third cluster of pumpkins right down the middle of each section.
They haven't been harvested. In fact, they never grew.
Todosciuk said about one third of the pumpkins planted in the particular patch never matured this year.
For a crop that is more in demand as Halloween festivities commence, pumpkins depend largely on the weather, which area farmers and agricultural experts say has been unfavorable toward pumpkins during this year's growing season.
"We haven't had perfect growing conditions in quite some time," said Todosciuk, the owner of Andy T's Farm Market, 3131 S. U.S. 27 in St. Johns. "Farming - you've got to take the elements. It's always something."
A soggy spring resulted in planting his pumpkins a week late, Todosciuk said.
Pumpkins make up 10 percent of his income, but he sells a variety of other products, including flowers, apple cider and other produce, Todosciuk said, adding the other goods could compensate for his losses in pumpkins.
"We'll make it up on something else," he said. "I planted 10 acres more, so I'll be all right. If I can sell them all, I'll be tickled to death."
Todosciuk supplies pumpkins for the annual Pumpkins in the Park festival in St. Johns, which ended its weeklong festivities Sunday.
The pumpkins are used for pumpkin-carving contests, in addition to events at Saturday's Pumpkin Olympics.
Kathy Campbell, co-chairperson of Pumpkins in the Park, said smaller crop yields don't affect the festival.
"Unless we have a drought where nothing's going to grow, I think we'll always have a pumpkin festival," Campbell said.
Vince Matthews, deputy director of the Michigan Agricultural Statistics Service, said the department conducts a weekly survey on crop production. Pumpkins are often among the studied crops.
The most recent report, released on Oct. 4, indicated that the pumpkin harvest was underway. Projected figures for the total pounds of pumpkins produced this year are not available, because the data is not collected from farmers until the end of the year, Matthews said.
In 2003, 102.2 million pounds of pumpkins were produced in Michigan, as opposed to the 81.6 million pounds produced in 2002, Matthews said.
Last year's increase was due to more acreage planted and better growing conditions, he added.
John Decker, owner of Hickory Corners Nursery, 333 N. Cedar St. in Lansing, said he grows about a half-acre of smaller, specialty pumpkins at his farm in Bath.
His pumpkins have been smaller, and 25 percent of his yield wasn't produced, Decker said.
Decker said he bought the rest of his pumpkins to compensate for his smaller yield.
"I made up the slack," he said. "Lansing's kind of fickle sometimes."
Bernard Zandstra, a horticulture professor and a vegetable specialist with MSU Extension and the Department of Horticulture, said pumpkins typically take 120 days to mature. In a cool summer, the growth could take a little longer, Zandstra said.
"The warm weather we had in September was a lifesaver for many of our crops," he said. "This year, we needed that period to actually continue the growing period."
