Perry Kirkham of Wea Creek Orchard takes a look at an apple that didn't develop because of a frost at the orchard near Lafayette. / By Michael Heinz/Journal & Courier
There’s a crisp bite in the breeze, and colors are emerging in the leaves.
Fall has arrived, and with the season come delights plucked from trees and harvested in the fields. Apple orchards are in full swing, while pumpkin patches are readying their crops for an onslaught of families come October.
But extreme weather, most recently during the summer’s drought but also in the form of a late-spring freeze, devastated some crops and left orchards and patches in some parts of the state scrambling this fall.
“We’ll have a pumpkin crop this fall. It’ll be up and down in different areas of the state, depending on soil types … and depending on whether they had irrigation,” said Roy Ballard, a Purdue Extension educator in Hancock County.
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