BUFFALO, W.Va. – There’s trouble brewing in the pumpkin patch.

Scorching weather and lack of rain this summer wiped out some pumpkin crops from western New York to Illinois, leaving fields dotted with undersized fruit. Other fields got too much rain and their crops rotted.

Pumpkin production is predicted to be down for the second straight year. U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show a slight production decrease from 2005 to 2006 in what the department estimates is a $100 million-a-year industry.

“If you’ve got to have them for your 5-year-olds, I certainly would not wait a long time to get them,” said Steve Bogash, a Penn State University horticulture educator who works with about 1,600 Pennsylvania vegetable growers.

Pennsylvania, the nation’s No. 2 producer, harvested what Bogash calls a beautiful early crop. But he said the state’s midseason pumpkins were a bust and the fate of late-season pumpkins depends on decent weather holding on well into October.

A lack of rain in July and August seems to have hurt the most.

Hot, dry weather causes pumpkins to produce too many male blossoms and too few female ones. Farmers also can blame drought for scads of small pumpkins as well as lighter weights because of a lack of water.

Standing in a 2-acre pumpkin field at his Buffalo farm, Bob Gritt lamented the poor color and small size of the crop surrounding him.

“The color’s not real good on them,” he said. “There’s not very many big ones in there.”

At least Gritt has pumpkins. Some West Virginia farmers don’t.

The West Virginia Pumpkin Festival has found itself in the unusual position of importing pumpkins for the four-day event beginning Thursday that lures about 40,000 visitors to Milton every year, organizer Martha Poore said.

Boyd Meadows, owner of Halfway Markets Inc. in Milton, says he’s importing pumpkins for many customers who can’t get them from their home state.

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