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Illinois pumpkin crop ends with good yields and high quality despite late start

A plant pathologist says overall, the Illinois pumpkin crop looks good this year despite a late start.

Mohammad Babadoost with the University of Illinois tells Brownfield given the wet spring they expected a poor crop, but pumpkins harvested for processing ended with more flesh than water because of dryer summer conditions, making them higher quality.

“It was better than expected from the beginning. Adding to that, we usually have at least a couple of somewhat devastating diseases, but this one year of them never reached Illinois and another one we were able to control.”

He says Halloween pumpkins did not yield as well but were still better than expected.

Babadoost says Illinois continues to be the top grower of the crop, producing 90% of the nation’s processing pumpkins.

“The gross value of the pumpkin industry is about $200 million in Illinois.”

He says the state produces around 25,000 acres of pumpkins each year.