Canadian wildfire smoke, drought conditions challenging sweet corn farmers
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. -- Minnesota is entering an important time of year for sweet corn.
But three straight years of dry weather has impacted fruits and vegetables, and now smoke from the Canadian wildfires is creating new challenges.
"I've been waiting for this time of year to get here so I could find the fruits and vegetables," said Autumn Mawby of Maple Grove.
RELATED: Air quality alert in effect, smoke to linger until Sunday morning
At Untiedt's Garden Center in Maple Grove, fruits, vegetables and even flowers are ready to go. But the produce that ended up there, needed a little extra help along the way.
"Without that rain it's an everyday activity. And we can't fall behind otherwise we'll lose the plants," Brad Jensen said.
Jensen said they have eight garden centers around the Twin Cities, but their farm near Waverly hasn't seen significant rain since Mother's Day.
"That's increased our water usage, which of course increases power usage and cost to the farm," said Jensen.
Jensen said they've actually used more irrigation the past three years than they did the previous five years combined. But he never expected smoke to be a factor too.
The smoke and haze from the Canadian wildfires has created a bit of a debate among some Minnesota farmers. Is it hurting crops? Or, in some ways, is it helping them?
There's a belief that smoke filtering the sun can provide relief to plants during extremely hot days. But Jensen said most farmers will take optimal sun along with optimal rain.
"We do want really nice sunshine for all of our plants and all of our plants and produce to grow as well. Nothing's better for the plants and produce than sunshine and water," said Jensen.
Despite added water and power costs, Untiedt's said they set their prices at the beginning of the year and don't plan to raise them.