Rainy summer hammers Ontario veggies

A cool, wet growing season is being blamed for unusually feeble, mouldy yields of vegetables in eastern Ontario.

The weather has destroyed about 15 per cent of the vegetables planted by Pakenham, Ont., farmer Paul Henrie, including eight rows of cucumber plants.

"They're drowned," he said, adding that the water stops oxygen from reaching the roots. "And all the cucumbers, they just turn mouldy."

He pushed aside the leaves to reveal a withered, wrinkled, grey vegetable.

Many of his peppers have suffered a similar fate, and he expects to lose 100 per cent of his pumpkins — five acres worth about $20,000 —  but he thinks his corn and tomatoes can still be salvaged, provided nature turns on the heat.

"And we definitely need no more rain," he said.

It's also been a rough year for soybean and corn farmers like Bruce Hudson, who has 400 hectares nearby. The price per tonne of corn is down $50 over this time last year, and he's also worried about his 100 hectares of soybeans that he was hoping to export to Japan at a premium price.

"The number of pods are down — there's only two versus three," he said as he examined the stunted plants in his field. "We've got a plant that's under stress. It certainly needs some help."

Farmer fears early frost

He said this July, the weather mirrored the weather in 1992, when crop yields were down 50 per cent.  His biggest fear is an early frost in late August or the beginning of September.

"That would be absolutely devastating."

He estimated that the temperature must stay hot for the next two months to produce a decent crop, so for now, his hopes are the same as Henrie's: "Right now, we're praying for heat."

Meanwhile, the prayers of berry farmers have already been answered.

"Never seen a raspberry crop like this in our lives. It was unbelievable," said Devon Ralph as he pulled a plump red raspberry from one of the plants Cedar Hill Berry Farm about 20 minutes' drive from Hudson's farm.

Ralph, one of the berry farm's owners, said the yield of raspberries is up 15 per cent, and would have been even higher if heavy rain hadn't knocked some berries to the ground, and if the berry pickers hadn't been deterred by incorrect weather forecasts.

His strawberries were also plentiful this year, he said, crediting a mild winter.

Claire Lavoie, who sells fruit in Ottawa's Byward market, said this was "the best season overall" for raspberries. The rain helped, she added.

"That's what they need."