enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Evan Patten, 14, picks strawberries at his family’s Patten’s Farm in Gorham on Monday. Rainy weather and fears of mold have some farmers scrambling to harvest their berries and get them to markets, rather than awaiting their pick-your-own customers.

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Ed Ahlquist is shin-deep in water as he puts out his “pick your own” sign Monday at Ahlquist Farm in Gorham. Measurable rain has fallen 13 out of the first 21 days of this month, and the temperature hasn’t exceeded 80 degrees since May 22.

Last June, Ralph Turner harvested 6,000 peony stems at his Laughing Stock Farm in Freeport. This year, thanks to gray mold, he'll be lucky to harvest half that number.

Tomato plants are turning black at Broadturn Farm in Scarborough.

Carrots and string beans have failed to sprout at Little River Flower Farm in Buxton.

All the rain and cool temperatures are to blame, say farmers across southern Maine. This is the second summer they are getting washed out. Many say they are having one of the toughest early growing seasons in recent memory.

Strawberries, just coming into their peak, are in danger of rotting. Seeds for vine crops are refusing to germinate. The first hay crop of the season is largely ruined. Just getting into the fields to tend crops has been a challenge.

So far, the price of early crops, such as strawberries, appears not to have been affected, but that could change if the rain continues. If the sun doesn't come out soon, the growing season will come up considerably short, according to southern Maine farmers.

"You go in above your ankles in the muck, but the weeds don't generally have a problem with this type of rain," Turner said.

Rainfall is running nearly triple the average for June, and high temperatures most days are hovering in the 60s. As of midnight Sunday, Portland had received 6.56 inches so far in June, compared with the average of 2.31 inches of rain for the same period, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.

Measurable rain has fallen 13 out of the first 21 days this month, thanks to a stalled weather pattern. The temperature has not registered above 80 degrees since May 22. The National Weather Service on Monday was calling for another week of the same.

"There is a ridge over the center of the country, with a trough on the northwest coast and a trough on the northeast coast. Unless that moves, we are stuck," said meteorologist Butch Roberts.

More rain will mean more pain for Maine's farmers.

Eleven of Rose Hoad's 3-week-old chicks at Emma's Family Farm in Windsor were victims of Friday's downpour.

Hoad said the chicks were kept in a well-drained spot, and she suspects they might have drowned in an inch-deep puddle that formed in the rain. She said the damp conditions this month have interfered with the chick growing cycle.

Normally, she would put baby birds weaned from the brooder out on a nice sunny day.

"But we haven't had any nice sunny days," Hoad said.

With a new set of chicks on the way, she had to make room for them in the brooder.

The rain has created other headaches at the free-range poultry farm. Keeping feed dry has been a challenge. Hens are laying fewer eggs, which Hoad attributes to gloomy skies.

"They are going to bed earlier because it is getting dark faster," she said.

At Flaherty Family Farms in Scarborough, owner Jack Flaherty has all but given up on vine crops such as squash, which needs a minimum 68-day growing season.

He said his squash and other vine crops should have gone into the ground June 15. Even if the rain were to stop today, the fields need at least another week to dry out.

Flaherty said he might take a gamble on some vine crops, and cross his fingers that the first frost will be late this year.

The hay season has also been a disaster.

There just isn't any new hay in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont or New York, said Dave Taylor, owner of The Hay Guy in Standish, which distributes hay for 120 growers in 25 states. Instead, farmers are using up last year's crop.

"June is hay month," said Clint Harris of Harris Farms in Dayton.

The highest quality hay comes at the beginning of the season, and the quality begins to go downhill after June 15. Harris managed to get some hay cut and baled in May but hasn't cut any hay this month.

The strawberry mold problem is one of the most pressing. Some farmers...