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The article's profit calculations assume that every pumpkin grown can be sold. If you take a drive in the countryside today (last day of sale before Hallowe'en)

The article's profit calculations assume that every pumpkin grown can be sold. If you take a drive in the countryside today (last day of sale before Hallowe'en), you'll see this is not the case. Huge piles of pumpkins still at the farm stores, and fields full of unharvested pumpkins. I believe the likely explanation for pumpkin patch economics is that pumpkins serve as a loss leader to attract customers to a farm store.

irrational 5y ago
But, the chart clearly showed that 50-75% of the pumpkins cannot be sold.
- jjmellon 5y ago
  The chart shows that 25% to 50% are not "capable" of being sold. I think this refers to losses in the field, such as unripe, overripe, insect or animal damage, etc. However, the article ignores the fact that many of the ones that are capable of being sold are never sold.
  - karaterobot 5y ago
    Why would they ignore that, but include losses in the field? Without more information, I assume the "not capable of being sold" number includes unsold units too.
    - ViViDboarder 5y ago
      It’s possible, but doesn’t seem that way to me. That explicitly mention field damage and so forth but don’t mention unsold pumpkins.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
    Is there a different type of pumpkin for pumpkin puree? Or could they not be used as animal feed? And why can't you sell the seeds? The article quotes ~$100/1k seeds. That's $0.10 per seed. There are ~250 seeds per pumpkin - that's $25 per pumpkin. What am I missing?
    - Isamu 5y ago
      The small “sugar pumpkins” are generally used for canning. I think those are harvested with much less waste.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - rp1 5y ago
      I doubt farmers would buy seeds for $100 / 1k seeds after the first season unless harvested seeds were not viable for planting or if the seeds were some type of specialized hybrid whose license prevented farmers from replanting their own seeds. Both possibilities would exclude selling the seeds for profit.
    - lathyrus_long 5y ago
      As to the seeds, a reputable vendor isn't just starting with any random fruit. Even for an open-pollinated variety, you want large separation distances from other varieties to avoid unwanted cross-pollination, potentially miles. You can also grow indoors, but that's more expensive and requires hand-pollination or introduced pollinators. You also need more careful artificial selection (roguing), to avoid long-term degradation of the genetics. For an F1 hybrid you need to do all this work to maintain each of the pure lines, and then also do the cross. Once you have the fruit, the seed needs to be separated, dried, perhaps tested for viral, bacterial, or fungal disease, perhaps treated with fungicide, and tested for germination. Of course a random pumpkin seed will grow with some probability, and the resulting plant will bear some kind of pumpkin. But the cost of high-quality seed is a very small share of the total cost of growing a pumpkin, so it's not a good place to cut corners. ETA: And the article notes explicitly that those seeds were hybrids. For emphasis, saving seeds from hybrids may or may not be legally permissible, depending on the patent status and any contracts signed, but with very few exceptions it doesn't work--the genetics aren't stable, and the F2 doesn't reliably have the same desirable traits as the F1.
beauzero 5y ago
That's why you have pigs. In the South (USA) pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and apple farms are only profitable with weekend day treks sold to urban/subdivision bound parents looking to get their kids outside. Pumpkins sold in Aldi's cost about $5 and we have paid as much as $60 for a similar pumpkin picked out by one of our kids. It gets us all out of the house and helps local farms.

irrational 5y ago

But, the chart clearly showed that 50-75% of the pumpkins cannot be sold.

jjmellon 5y ago
The chart shows that 25% to 50% are not "capable" of being sold. I think this refers to losses in the field, such as unripe, overripe, insect or animal damage, etc. However, the article ignores the fact that many of the ones that are capable of being sold are never sold.
- karaterobot 5y ago
  Why would they ignore that, but include losses in the field? Without more information, I assume the "not capable of being sold" number includes unsold units too.
  - ViViDboarder 5y ago
    It’s possible, but doesn’t seem that way to me. That explicitly mention field damage and so forth but don’t mention unsold pumpkins.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
  Is there a different type of pumpkin for pumpkin puree? Or could they not be used as animal feed? And why can't you sell the seeds? The article quotes ~$100/1k seeds. That's $0.10 per seed. There are ~250 seeds per pumpkin - that's $25 per pumpkin. What am I missing?
  - Isamu 5y ago
    The small “sugar pumpkins” are generally used for canning. I think those are harvested with much less waste.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - rp1 5y ago
    I doubt farmers would buy seeds for $100 / 1k seeds after the first season unless harvested seeds were not viable for planting or if the seeds were some type of specialized hybrid whose license prevented farmers from replanting their own seeds. Both possibilities would exclude selling the seeds for profit.
  - lathyrus_long 5y ago
    As to the seeds, a reputable vendor isn't just starting with any random fruit. Even for an open-pollinated variety, you want large separation distances from other varieties to avoid unwanted cross-pollination, potentially miles. You can also grow indoors, but that's more expensive and requires hand-pollination or introduced pollinators. You also need more careful artificial selection (roguing), to avoid long-term degradation of the genetics. For an F1 hybrid you need to do all this work to maintain each of the pure lines, and then also do the cross. Once you have the fruit, the seed needs to be separated, dried, perhaps tested for viral, bacterial, or fungal disease, perhaps treated with fungicide, and tested for germination. Of course a random pumpkin seed will grow with some probability, and the resulting plant will bear some kind of pumpkin. But the cost of high-quality seed is a very small share of the total cost of growing a pumpkin, so it's not a good place to cut corners. ETA: And the article notes explicitly that those seeds were hybrids. For emphasis, saving seeds from hybrids may or may not be legally permissible, depending on the patent status and any contracts signed, but with very few exceptions it doesn't work--the genetics aren't stable, and the F2 doesn't reliably have the same desirable traits as the F1.

beauzero 5y ago

That's why you have pigs. In the South (USA) pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and apple farms are only profitable with weekend day treks sold to urban/subdivision bound parents looking to get their kids outside. Pumpkins sold in Aldi's cost about $5 and we have paid as much as $60 for a similar pumpkin picked out by one of our kids. It gets us all out of the house and helps local farms.