As any farmer would attest, there’s no substitute for rain.

This summer, there hasn’t been nearly a fraction of enough precipitation to wet the crops in their fields.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced on Wednesday that the Commonwealth Drought Task Force has declared a drought watch for 36 counties.

The impacted areas are on the eastern side of the state, and include Carbon, Schuylkill, Monroe, Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Because of the dry conditions, residents are asked to voluntary reduce their water usage.

Local farmers have certainly felt the sting brought on by the dearth of rainfall.

Take Yenser’s Tree Farm, along Route 902 in the Mahoning Valley, for example.

Ryan Wentz, co-owner, said that the tree farm has many pumpkins, but not near as many as last year when the weather was more conducive.

Wentz noted that prime pumpkin growing season is June and July, but they’ve only had three-quarters of an inch of rain since June 1.

“The size of our pumpkins are not near as big, the height of our corn, the height of our sunflowers, because of the lack of rain,” Wentz said. “Last year ,we had massive (pumpkins), some of the biggest pumpkins we ever had.”

Wentz said the overnight temperatures halt photosynthesis, which doesn’t allow full pollination.

“It’s a struggle,” he said. “We did hand-water the pumpkins, but nothing waters crops like rain.”

Wentz assured it isn’t only his tree farm that’s been affected by the overly dry conditions.

“I feel for the other guys that depend on the corn and soy beans for yield,” Wentz said. “We’re in bad shape, but we’re all kind of in this together.”

Christmas tree woes

The staff at Old Homestead Tree Farm near Lehighton plants thousands of trees each spring. Among them are Fraser firs, a popular choice among Christmas tree shoppers.

“We planted 6,500 of them this year, and over 50% of them are now dead,” said owner Glenn Beers. “I would wager to say that of the remaining 50%, I would bet that 25% of them are dead. We just don’t know it yet.”

The culprit, Beers said, is the lack of precipitation.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection noted that the Commonwealth Drought Task Force declared a drought watch for 36 counties, including Carbon County where Old Homestead lies along Strohls Valley Road.

It didn’t come as a surprise for Beers, whose livelihood depends on Mother Nature.

“To grow a good tree, you need to have good soil. But one of the key ingredients to its growth is definitely water, which as you know we’ve had a large lack thereof,” said Beers, whose family farm began in 1975.

Old Homestead has more than 100,000 evergreen, deciduous and ornamental trees on its 90 acres. Depending on the species, they’re either sold for Christmas or bagged-and-balled for planting.

While the youngest trees are most impacted by a lack of water, Beers said older and more established trees aren’t seeing as much new growth. The last time he saw conditions this severe, he said, was in 1989 or 1990.

“Not every tree has died, of course. The Christmas trees are still there. The larger trees are still green and doing their thing,” Beers said. “It shouldn’t have a big impact on the crop for the Christmas season. You won’t have to be concerned about that.”

But there will be an impact. He estimates that it will take between 7 and 10 years to see it because of the time it takes most trees to grow to maturity. The future crop, he said, will be less than usual.

Old Homestead also grows pumpkins for a pumpkin patch. The colorful gourds are not thriving or plentiful.

“The ones that are here are of smaller size,” he said.

And corn planted for a corn maze is reaching only 7 feet. Normally, he said, it is 8 to 10 feet tall.

Beers said precipitation can never be guaranteed.

“If you like to gamble, you don’t have to go to a casino,” he joked. “Just plant something and see how it goes.”

Jill Whalen contributed to this report.