ASHLAND — Don Cantrell pulled the husk back from an ear of corn, revealing sweet golden kernels.

He tossed the ear onto a card table and turned back to the load of corn in his pickup.

Customers were pulling up to his makeshift produce stand and Cantrell didn’t have time to waste.

“We plant our corn 15 days apart, but the heat and humidity makes it all come in at the same time,” he said. “We don’t have time to sell it all. It ends up rotting on the stalk.”

Business partner Dennis Workman turned over a ripe, red tomato and pointed to a blemish on the bottom. It would be a good eating tomato but didn’t have the cosmetic perfection customers are looking for.

“We’re having a big loss in tomatoes. A lot of them have already ripened and rotted,” he said.

The two South Shore men spend most of their summer days selling produce out of their truck on U.S. 23 at the foot of the viaduct near the Russell city limits. The insufferably hot and humid summer of 2010 has taken its toll on them. More important, it has decimated their yield and their income.

About 15 miles to the west, Tom Osborne also had a pickup load of produce and a limited amount of time to get it sold. “I can sell what I’ve got if I’m careful. I’ve got to make sure it’s extra fresh,” he said.

That’s not easy in this season of stifling heat and humidity. “It goes to rotting on you too fast,” he said. Osborne, who was selling his vegetables at the side of U.S. 23 at Coal Branch Road, has nearly 100 tomato plants and three rows of beans. The heat “is burning them up,” he said.

 The sticky-hot summer also has exacerbated the effect of fungal blights that afflict tomatoes, peppers and other produce. “They are running rampant,” said Lori Bowling, a horticultural agent for the Boyd County Extension Service.

The weather is ideal for the fungi, which thrive in damp heat, she said.

Tomatoes also suffer from blossom end rot, Bowling said. The disease is the result of calcium deficiency, but chances are the weather contributes to the failure of plants to absorb the mineral. Even moisture levels and mulch may help, Bowling said.

Some gardeners are experiencing root rot, the result of heavy rains. When roots deteriorate, the plants can’t absorb enough nutrients, Bowling said.

Cantrell thinks the heavy rains have afflicted the bee population he depends on to pollinate his bean plants. At any rate, he has seen fewer bees and his bean yields have dropped.

And the season’s precipitation has not been good for produce, Osborne said. “There’s either too much moisture or not enough. When we get it, it’s a gully washer.”

As fall approaches, growers are facing still another threat — downy mildew on their pumpkin crops. The mildew, which also hits watermelons and cucumbers, can kill the vines, Bowling said. The pumpkins get sunburnt — discolored by the direct sun exposure — and don’t develop the rich orange color prized for harvest and Halloween decor.

Local farmers’ markets are doing well, but not as well as should be expected, Bowling said. That may be in part because of weather problems. But Bowling also is seeing more home gardening than ever, especially niche gardens.”They’re planting wherever they have a little bit of space.”

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.