Continued rain can hurt vegetable crops

Rain can be a good thing, but for a lot of crops, it isn’t.

Local vendors at the Andalusia Farmer’s Market said that too much of a good thing can be bad.

“Too much rain gets in my peaches and tomatoes,” Ron Brooks said.

“We haven’t had too much rain yet, but it’s still not helping.”

Brooks sells tomatoes and peaches at the Andalusia Farmer’s Market.

Another known vendor from the Andalusia Farmer’s Market agreed.

“I’m losing as many tomatoes as I pick,” Merianne McCollough said.

McCollough grows and sells cantaloupes, watermelons, tomatoes, squash and other vegetables.

“It really hurts the vegetables. Watermelons and cantaloupes don’t taste as good with so much water,” he said.

But the rain isn’t entirely bad.

“Well, it’s good for the grass for my cows,” McCollough said.

Peggy Graham, another farmer’s market vendor, said that the rain is bad for her butter beans.

Graham sells butter beans, cucumbers, potatoes and okra.

“When butter beans hang in the water they turn brown and kind of rot,” she said.

“My cucumbers turned out all right. I got my potatoes out of the ground before anything could go bad.”

Marie Williams said that rain isn’t so bad for her plants. That’s because she grows hardy plants.

“The rain isn’t really hurting my plants because my plants mainly take care of themselves. When I leave the farmer’s market they usually stay in pots,” she said.

Williams sells stevia plants, cut flowers and other potted plants at the farmer’s market.

The current weather forecast calls for 40 percent chance of rain today, mostly sunshine through Sunday but showers again next week.