Pumpkin Prices - Don from WI

[yak651]

Just wondering what everyone is asking for their pumpkins? I was thinking between $1-$5 depending on size. Some are looking pretty good, but some that would be pretty nice are scabby, what causes that??

 

[Anonymous-0]

Southern Kentucky. I'm wholesaling trailer loads containing 125 of mixed sizes for $375. With our drought, they're hard come by locally. I've already told buyers the same load will be $450 after September 20 & they're not even blinking. BTW, corn stalk shocks (12 tied together) are wholesaling @ $4-5 per. The corn just amazes me!

 

[Don-Wi]

We can range anywhere from $1 for the little ones all the way up to $10-15+ for a really nice size one. We just started picking yesterday and getting some on the front lawn, but I left before my brother priced them. It's all supply & demand, and what the nieghbors are asking for them.

This year I think we can lower the prices a lite bit, we hasd a great growing season and our 2 acres gave us a whole lotta pumpkins.

There's lots of reasons for scabby vs healthy. Some of it is bugs, weather, growing conditions, it happens for all sorts of reasons. We just pick'em, and put them in the right size range. Some people like the scabby kinda knarly pumpkins, while others like the more traditional plain-jane smooth orange ones.

We've got a rather lareg selection of fancy kinds, some are a creamy green, some are white, some are a brihgt red and flatter. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say we have over 40 different types of squash, guords, and pumpkins. Plus corn shocks, and we need to get some straw bales yet. We grow indian corn too, but this year the weeds got it so we cut the really colorful stalks and made mini-shocks with them, hoping they hold their deep purple and red in the stalk as they dry down.

Donovan from Wisconsin

 

[Anonymous-0]

Around here pumpkins were selling for $8+ for a decent sized one (5-10 lbs)...I saw a couple of kids get theirs weighed at a pick your own place and they were in the upper $20s...this year I grew my own!

 

[landlord7012]

I won't advise what you should charge, partly because I don't know where you are located. I look at it this way - it shouldn't cost a family a days wages to decorate the yard for Halloween! $20 for one pumpkin is insane! Even the rich b!tches shouldn't have to pay that much simply because it drives all of the prices up year after year. I will say my prices are "extremely reasonable" yet there always seems to be a little extra in my "honor box". I believe it's from those who can afford a little extra, appreciate my location and are glad they don't have to give it to a retail store.


Thanks for the rant time!
ll

 

[Don-Wi]

We always just take a look at the market, and go by how many we have available. We'll still have some $10+ pumpkins this year, but we should be selling for less than last year. Last year was a very poor growing season and we sold just about every single pumpkin we had.

Donovan from Wisconsin

 

[yak651]

My family used to grow and sell pumpkins in the late 80's early 90's, the money from that paid for my college. Now I have 9 acres that I'm building a house on and plowed an acre garden last fall that I planted pumpkins on this spring (posted pictures last fall of an old case I bought, plowing). I'm just trying to make a little gas money and maybe enough to buy a two row corn planter so I can get a little sweet corn in next year. I'm in Freedom WI, selling them at my mom's in Appleton. I seen Don's post about picking, so he's in the same area and was just wondering what he was asking.

 

[8N'r--WI]

yak--I planted pumpkins this year for the first time along the edge of one of my cornfields. Just a few hills so the grandkids could come and pick their own.

Question that I have is, once the pumpkin turns orange, is it finished growing, or will it get a bit bigger?

Thanks for the response--Tim

 

[yak651]

Once they are orange they are pretty much done growing. If the vines are still green you can leave them on so they keep longer. I like to have them off before it freezes so I can cover them when it does. I'm not sure if it makes them last longer or not, but it seems to.

 

[yak651]

here's the pictures from last fall, i'll try to get some pictures of it now
http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ttalk&th=516650