The Ozarks Chronicle/Agriculture

“It’s entertainment farming in the fall,” says Marv Meyer, who runs the operation 3 miles south of Dixon with his wife, Sally. The Meyers opened their farm at 13018 Highway D to the public Sept. 24 and it will remain open through Halloween for picking pumpkins and having lots of fun.

The best time to go is on the weekend where for just $3 admission, the Meyers will let you and your kids get lost awhile in two mazes. Your kids can also play on an old tractor or a big pile of hay, pet the animals, go through the big inflatable haunted house, participate in a “duck race” with old-time pumps and gutters and jump into the corn crib, a rural variation of a sandbox.

“The pumpkins will be stacked up high, but we’ll also give wagon rides down to the field and people can pick their own,” Meyer says. The ride is part of the admission fee, but the pumpkin costs extra.

Browsing of the decorative gourds, carving kits, jellies, straw baskets and hats and other items at the farm’s gift shop will be encouraged. Straw bales and corn shocks will also be available for sale.

“It’s really grown tremendously,” Meyer says of the farm’s annual fall celebration and entertainment.

To provide the public with an entertaining time in late September and throughout October, the Meyers work hard the rest of the year to get the produce out of the ground, something they’ve been doing for 20 years.

“We bought this place in 1985 and have been working on it ever since,” Meyer said. “We’ve been in business here since the early 1990s, growing blueberries, pumpkins and Christmas trees,” Meyer says. “I quit the trees last year. I had too much disease problems so I’m phasing that out. I’ve just got a few trees left.”

Marv and Sally Meyer worked on the farm while holding down jobs in town until recently.

“I retired three years ago, in fact, my wife and I both retired,” Meyer says. “I was the natural resources chief at Fort Leonard Wood for 27 years and my background is in agronomy and agriculture.”

Meyer said he planted the first pumpkin seeds in 1991.

“I planted them before I planted blueberries, I had the ground worked up, so I planted pumpkins. We had a heckuva crop, so we set a tent out front and sold the heck out of them,” he says. “We’ve been at it every since.”

The farm has eight acres of pumpkins three acres of blueberries and a half-acre of blackberries, plus several rows of ornamental corn.

“The pumpkins are in little patches all over, not one big field,” he says. “We grow about seven different varieties of pumpkins, from miniatures, soccer ball size or a little smaller, to jack-o-lanterns, 15- or 20-pounders, some 30-pounders. We try to get a good mixture of everything. Certain varieties grow better than others from one year to the next.”

This year the dry weather and weeds kept the giant pumpkins from doing well.

“I’m talking 75-pounders. Last year I had quite a few of those. They’re mainly just for display here at the farm,” Meyer says. “But this year the dry weather was too much for them and the weeds took them. I may not have gotten my herbicide mixed right or something.”

The pumpkins face competition from at least two kinds of bugs, as well as the weeds.

“You have to fight cucumber beetles on the young plants; later gray squash bugs, which are sucking bugs, show up. You’ve got to spray insecticide and stay on top of things,” Meyer says. “You can leave for week and come back and find they’ve gotten a jump on you. When you see an infestation coming in, you’ve got to get on top of it quick.”

Meyer says he plants the seeds with a two-row planter in rows spaced about 45 inches between rows.

“The big pumpkins we start with plants, not seeds, and I try to get them in hills,” he says.

The pumpkins require fertilizer applications, too.

“Like corn, we plant fertilizer in every row, and then go back later when they’re growing with a nitrogen application to give a good boost,” Meyer said. “Then you’ve got to watch your weeds, put herbicide on them, and pray for rain.”

The Meyer farm is also open in the summer for a few weeks when then berries are ready, the blueberries first and then the blackberries.

“The blueberries are usually ready about June 20. We had pretty good quality this year, but the quantity was down,” Meyer said.

Part of the reason was the weather

“I’ve got supplemental irrigation on the blueberries, but you just can’t beat a good rain,” Meyer said. “But my plants are also getting old and need some heavy pruning, so we’re kind of in a rebuilding stage. But we always get rid of everything we’ve got. We have a lot of pick-your-own or pre-pick; people will call ahead of time and we’ll pick them for them.”

The blueberry season generally runs about three weeks.

“We’ve got a mailing list, but people know when the good picking is and they’ll be here as soon as we open,” he says.

The same is true of the fall celebration. Throughout October, the Meyer farm will be teeming on the weekends with parents, grandparents and children, looking for some fall fun, posing for pictures and picking pumpkins.

“It isn’t just for Halloween anymore, but for fall decorating, too,” Meyer says. “And it just makes a good family outing. On weekends, lots of families come out. It’s a good time to get away and go to the farm.”

The Ozarks Home and Garden