The Basse family has been growing pumpkins — as well as strawberries, apples, corn and soybeans — for almost 30 years in Colgate, Wis. Every fall, their farm transforms into Pumpkin Fest, bringing in families from all over for pumpkin picking, corn mazes and dozens of games and activities.
“When I tell our customers how we grow the pumpkins that sit on their porch or they carve with their kids, they’re always amazed at how much thought and effort goes into it,” Blake Basse says.
A Better Way
Blake, who was only 6 years old when Basse’s Farms launched Pumpkin Fest in 1997, came up with an idea in 2024 that would improve how he and his dad, Roger, grew their most prized assets.
“We always had challenges with growing a consistent pumpkin crop with conventional tillage,” Blake says. “We’d get big rains, and we’d watch the pumpkins sit in mud, which is full of diseases and pathogens that essentially break the pumpkins down. There had to be a better way.”
That better way turned out to be adopting strip-till and cover crops. The Basses now plant cereal rye with their grain drill after soybean harvest in October. They let the rye grow until June before terminating it with a roller-crimper. Then they use Yetter 2984 Strip Fresheners on a Yetter 3815 toolbar to make strips about 4.5 inches deep through the rye and plant pumpkins into the seedbed a couple of days later.
“I can’t believe how well it’s worked so far,” Blake says. “It’s helped with disease, weed pressure and keeping the pumpkins clean. They’re sitting on the rye mat, so when we pick them there’s barely any dirt on them. That’s wonderful for the customers because the last thing they want to see when they take pumpkins to the car is dirt everywhere.”
Weathering the Storm
The Basses’ switch to the new system couldn’t have come at a better time. Just a few weeks after planting pumpkins into the strips, a “1,000-year” rain event dumped a foot of rain on their farm in less than a day.
“We were very worried,” Blake recalls. “In any other year, with a storm of that magnitude, we’d have a minimum 70% loss of our pumpkin crop. In some years, I’ve seen some of our fields be a total loss after 3 inches of rain.”
Blake and Roger were shocked to see their strip-tilled pumpkins holding up better than they could’ve imagined a day after the storm.
“If it wasn’t for our pumpkins sitting on the rye mat, and strip-till getting them off to a good start, there would’ve been a much different outcome,” Blake says. “We’re happy we decided to make the changes when we did because I believe it made all the difference.”
Blake says he’s going to look at strip-tilling other crops after seeing the benefits with pumpkins. He’s also considering tinkering with his timeline a bit in 2026 and making strips in April instead of June.
“When that rye gets going, it really gets going,” Blake says. “I might make the strips in April next year, just to get them established before the rye takes off.”
