Sweet and field corn is planted at the Thomas Gearhart Farm along Turkey Valley Road in Frankstown Township. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

What a difference a year makes. Last year, the region’s sweet corn crop was ready early and available for consumers to enjoy by July 4.

This year’s cold, damp weather in May has set some farmers back.

However, the Amish farmers in Sinking Valley should have corn available by Independence Day.

Some warm weather at the beginning of April enabled those farmers to get an early start.

“The Amish were ready and got theirs planted early under plastic. Sweet corn does not grow well until the ground reaches 55 degrees. The ground was warm very early and it was favorable to put it in,” said Sinking Valley grower Gary Long. “If you waited, it got wet. You were OK if you got it in April 5-10 when the ground was warm.”

Statewide, many farmers reported that their crops will be substantially late this year. Eastern Pennsylvania seemed to have less trouble planting on time than the other regions. With the cool and rainy weather, however, all have seen hardship during the season, according to Will Whisler, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

The discrepancy found among harvest times was the method of planting used. The farmers who reported planting under plastic very early in the season had a more flourishing crop that will be ready in time to celebrate the Fourth of July. However, the majority which do not grow under plastic, especially those in the western and northern parts of the state, will not have sweet corn ready by the holiday, Whisler said.

Whisler said some farmers from the northern part of the state reported that they were still planting during the second and third weeks of June, only two to three weeks before the Fourth.

“One farmer even claimed that in his 40 years of farming, he had never experienced a season like this year’s, never having more than a three-day dry spell, leaving them unable to plant for weeks,” Whisler said.

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.

Rainy weather put farmers in a tough situation this year.

Long got his corn planted between April 25 and May 1.

“The first week of May we had a cold rain, what I planted just laid there and did nothing until about a week later. The corn I planted then came up the same time as the corn I had planted ten days earlier,” Long said. “Mine will be ready July 20-25, about the same as last year.”

Sam Weyant, owner of Sam Weyant Berry and Vegetable Farms, Claysburg, said this year has been a struggle. Last year was difficult as well due to the lengthy drought, but the farm has run into the opposite problem this year.

“This year, it was so wet you couldn’t get into the field,” Weyant said. “Where it wasn’t real wet, it is growing, but in areas where the water laid on the ground, it drowned it, it rotted and never came up.”

Weyant said he believes he will eventually have a good crop, saying the rest of the summer brings a level of uncertainty.

“All of my ground is on the level and I don’t use plastic. I will have a good crop. It should be ready around the middle of July,” Weyant said.

Himmel’s Sweet Corn of Carrolltown will be even later, with owner Jolene Himmel estimating the farm will be able to harvest the corn in early August.

“We will be late, the early rain set us back. We hope this recent heat will help us,” Himmel said. “We were hoping for the Fourth of July, (since) we got ours planted in early April. It looks good so far, we take what we can get.”

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