Weather patterns causing sweat corn delays for Pennsylvania farmers

CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) – With this year’s weather pattern, farmers across Pennsylvania are facing problems for this year’s harvest.

One of the crops that are being affected by the cold-to-hot-to-dry pattern is sweet corn. Local farmers spoke with WTAJ about the situation and what that means for consumers.

Way Fruit Farm is located in Port Matilda and Jason Coopey, Co-owner of the farms says the weather hasn’t been anywhere near ideal.

“You know we started off with super super cold and super dry in the early spring followed by now super wet and super hot so it is not been what I call really good growing conditions at all,” Coopey said. “Then we mix smoke into the whole thing and make it more difficult.”

Most farmers look to have rain every two or three days for their corn, but they also have to take into account when to plant. With cold weather some pushed back their planting dates, but then faced problems with the lack of rain.

“I planted around the 24th of April which was about a week to ten days later than I normally start my first planting and we have to remember April we have lots of showers,” Gary Long, a Blair County sweet corn farmer said. “It has to be above 60 for sweet corn to grow.”

Long added that with the weather he’s planted corn at four different times to see how the weather will affect it.

Farmers are gambling with this years harvest and are hoping that mother nature will be on their side for the rest of the season.

“We are still not out of the woods yet and as we walked through the field I showed you the corn is not as tall as it should be, Long added. “Its not shading the ground so if the water does dry up up here like it normally does in august because we have no shade it will make an affect to it.”

Long and Cooney believe that most sweet corn will be ready to harvest closer to the middle of August. This may also cause an increase in price as some harvests may not make it.