“Overall, across the state most farmers have reported having a pretty good sweet corn crop this year,” said Will Whisler, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Member Communications Director. “The consensus for Pennsylvania seems to be that sweet corn in general is a little bit early or right on schedule to previous years, with most farmers believing that they should be able to have sweet corn available by the Fourth of July or the second week of July.”

Of the farmers surveyed this year, Whistler said one in Indiana County had sweet corn available as of June 19. “The earliest that we heard from anyone,” he said.

Locally, Amish growers in Sinking Valley were expected to have sweet corn for sale well before July 4, said Sinking Valley grower Gary Long.

“The guys (Amish) who grow theirs under plastic planted at the end of March, start of April. I didn’t get mine in until the 26th of April,” Long said.

A buggy drives by a corn field along Golf Course Road in Sinking Valley on Thursday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Sweet corn is already available at Martin’s Garden Center along Route 453 and should be hitting other markets in the area in the upcoming days and weeks.

Sam Weyant, owner of Sam Weyant Berry and Vegetable Farms, Claysburg, said his crop looks good.

“I keep watering and irrigating it, we have had no problems with frost or anything, but we sure need rain. I am about on schedule, probably looking at about July 15 to be ready,” Weyant said, noting that “last year we had some frost that crippled it.”

The hot weather has pushed the corn to be a little ahead of schedule, he added.

Long said he got started a little later than usual but his corn should be ready near the end of the month.

“I got started about five days later because of the cool damp spring,” Long said of his sweet corn planting. “Mine should be ready by the last week of July, about the same as last year.”

Once planted, the corn took off well, he said, and the recent heat helped with the growing season.

Now, though, more water is needed, Long said, noting “There is never enough water for a farmer.”

Himmel’s Sweet Corn of Carrolltown will also have corn ready by the end of July.

“We got an early start on the season, but the dry weather sort of held it back a little but it’s still looking good so far. I would guess we’ll be ready near the end of July even though we got an early start,” owner Jolene Himmel said.

Whisler said the damp spring helped some growers and hurt others.

“The damp spring has helped many farmers, with some farmers experiencing a great start to the growing season for the crop to grow correctly. Farmers in southeastern Pennsylvania noted that the rain has given their crop a boost this year, while a farmer in Tioga County explained that he waited to plant his sweet corn this year because of all the early rain and didn’t get enough rain to recover from missing out on planting, pushing his crop back to the second week of August this year,” Whisler said. “In general, farmers who got ahead of the rain did well as far as having an early yield and others who missed that window certainly were impacted by it.”

Weyant credits his irrigation system with helping him develop a good crop.

In the spring, “we had a lot of rain; it was hard to get it planted on time,” he said. Now, “we just need rain. If I didn’t have irrigation I wouldn’t have a good crop.”

The sweet corn crop is important not only to local and state farmers, but across the country.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, all 50 states produce sweet corn, and in 2022, the total value of the crop was estimated at $809 million, 22% more than the previous year.

As of 2017, the latest statewide figures available, there were 1,672 Pennsylvania farms that grew sweet corn, producing 67.67 million pounds per year with a value estimated at $24.75 million. Pennsylvania ranked 10th in the United States for acres of sweet corn harvested at 11,514 acres.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.