Mid-Atlantic states summer vegetable shipments are later than usual after a cold, wet spring delayed some plantings in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
Dublin Farms of Horntown, VA is running a week to 10 days later than normal.
DELAWARE
In Delaware, sweet corn under plastic, as well as cabbage, was ready in mid-June, while snap beans started in early July.
Watermelon shipments will start around the third week of July.
Delaware ranks in the nation’s top 10 for sweet corn and watermelon shipments.
Blueberry shipments started in June, with peaches arriving in early July.
MARYLAND
Maryland gets its first local sweet corn by the end of June, said Mark Powell, chief of agriculture and seafood marketing at the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
VIRGINIA
In Virginia, apple, grape, peanut, and tomato shipments rank in the top 10 among all U.S. states. Other crops include potatoes and pumpkins.
According to the USDA’s 2019 State Agriculture Overview:
- 9,500 acres of apples were harvested, yielding about 20,000 pounds per acre, and excluding processed apples, it was valued at $0.25 per pound for fresh-market apples, resulting in $22.4 million in production value; and
- 5,600 acres of pumpkins were harvested, yielding 18,480 pounds per acre, for a total of 103.5 million pounds, $0.18 per pound, resulting in $16.4 million in production value.
Potatoes shipments started in late June and will continue through July. Potato acreage dropped by about 500 acres for a total of about 3,000 acres this year, as a large farm purchase transitioned some cropland.
Dublin Farms’ potato loaodings started in early July. Most of the potatoes end up at the terminal markets in Jessup, Md.; New York; Boston and Philadelphia, as well as at repacker facilities.
Dublin Farms also grows string beans for processing and fresh market for C&E Farms, Cheriton, VA. From there, the green beans will ship direct to retailers and to terminal markets.
Shipments got underway July 8 for cherry and grape tomatoes and July 11 for round and roma tomatoes.
Green beans from one of the largest growers of the commodity on the East Coast, C&E Farms, started in mid-June.
More inland, flat or “donut” peaches are now hitting a peak, mostly coming from near Charlottesville at Crown Orchard Co. of Covesville, VA., the largest donut peach producer in the state and a major player on the East Coast.
The tomato deal ought to crank up July 1 and go through September, possibly into October.