Christmas trees

[NWP]

Not sure if this is the right category, but it's probably not the wrong one either.  We went and got the Christmas tree today and my wife and I got to talking about starting our own Christmas tree farm.  We have 20 acres we live on and currently around 10 acres is planted in soybeans.  We thought about planting Christmas trees instead and stagger 3-4 plantings.  I've got a couple of books on the subject but thought I would ask if anyone else has experience with them.  I searched the forum and nothing came up.

[Phorester]

To set the stage for what is involved.....

My wife and I grew 10 acres of Christmas trees for 25 years. I also taught Christmas tree management seminars for many years in my job.  We also contract sheared for other people.  We sheared from 30 - 40,000 trees, just the two of us, every year for 25 years. I would take 2 - 3 weeks off work every year from mid-June to mid-July, which was the only period of the year when white pine could be sheared in Virginia.Then we'd work about half the weekends from then until the end of August shearing scotch pine, firs, and spruces.  For the 2 - 3 weeks, I'd shear 7 days a week from dawn to dark, eating lunch and supper in the field. I'd work after supper until it got too dark to see, usually around 9:00pm here. Hottest part of the summer. You wouldn't have to spend that much time if you are just shearing your own trees. Mow our trees during the summer, herbicide the grass within the tree rows, hunt for and treat insect and disease problems, replant, etc. Something to do all year long, with winter being the time with the least amount to do.

Just some thoughts in general: First, I think 10 acres is all two people can handle by themselves and do all the tasks needed, so you got about the right amount of acreage to devote to Christmas trees.

Christmas trees require a lot of hard physical labor in the hottest part of the summer (for shearing). In MO you might have to shear twice each summer because of the longer growing season.  Also require the use of herbicides and pesticides.  You'll need a tractor to possibly pull a tree planter, and certainly for mowing between the trees.

You have two choices how to sell, which will determine how your trees need to be planted. If your location warrants, you might be able to do both. One method is wholesale, where you sell to Christmas tree lot operators in bulk.  This does not require good vehicle access into the Christmas trees needed for cars.  If the area is accessible to pickups and flatbed trucks this will work. You don't make as much money as retail, but you don't do as much work during the Christmas season either.  You sell the trees in late summer or fall, mark the trees for each buyer (I used different color flagging for each), then be there when they come for the trees monitoring the cutting, maybe helping cut, drag, or load.  You might arrange to cut and stack them yourself (for an additional fee) and the buyer just drives up and loads, or require the buyer to cut, drag, and load.  You might cut and deliver the trees yourself to the lots. You're done with all the work by the weekend before Christmas because that's the last date the lot people want trees. Low labor involved.  Also lower income for you.

Second way is retail, where you open up your area to individuals to cut their trees, which is where you got yours. Here you need good access for cars, with solid parking lots.  You can also get into a Christmas shop, selling wreaths, hayrides, living nativity scenes, etc., etc., etc.  Higher labor needs, lots more work right up to Christmas eve for the late shoppers, but a higher income for you. Lots of interaction with the public.

Wholesale, you need no parking lot, but need roads between every few rows of trees for getting trucks down them.  Retail, you need at least one big parking lot that is solid.  You don't want your customers getting their cars stuck in mud.  But you probably won't need roads every few rows of trees.  So you plant the trees according to how you want to sell them.

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it; the hard physical labor, mowing, figuring out insects and diseases and treating them, working with the public.

I'd ask myself two questions:  Do both my wife and I have the physical stamina to work with the trees for at least the next 10 years, maybe longer if we like it?  Do I like working with the public?

[Rocky_Ranger]

Phorester times 2!  We too had a Christmas tree farm for about 14 years, most enjoyable work I've ever done in selling them.  Hardest and hottest work I've ever done in shearing them.  I used to cut right-of-way timber for a logging outfit, in July, in the South.  Didn't hold a candle to wearing a shearing machine; you have the hot part of summer plus you have an internal (infernal) combustion engine on your back and an 8' shearing blade reciprocating up in front of your nose.  I still loved it! Just get ready to work your butt off; you can make good money, starting about the fourth or fifth year.  Phorester times 2!

[Jasperfield]

We've grown trees for years. Frasier Fir and a few Blue Spruce. I didn't replant any for the past two years because the market is flooded with trees as far forward as we can see. If you plant next fall, then add eight years, conditions may be different.

I'd do extensive market research and try to get an idea how many trees will come on the market by 2020. Of course, some of those trees can be balled & burlapped and sold on the landscape market.

[WDH]

I knew that it was a lot of work, but Whoa!

[Ron Scott]

Ditto! to what Phorester and Rocky Ranger said on the planning, work, risks, marketing, etc.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,972.msg20916.html#msg20916

[NWP]

Thanks for all the great information.  We were thinking of selling them retail at our place.  We are right outside of town with a population of 10,000 and growing.  There isn't anyone else as close or as conveniently located as we are.  I thought about planting the first 3 acres by hand and see how it goes.  If it completely horrible, I will buy a planter for the next batch.  I have all the other support equipment I need so the only capital outlay would be seedlings , fertilizer, herbicides, etc. I also have 3 boys that I can put to work. ;D What spacing were you using on planting?

[SwampDonkey]

I knew that it was a lot of work, but Whoa!

Exactly why there are a lot of Christmas tree lots abandoned, usually less than 10 acres though. We have a huge grower here that grows well into the thousands of acres of Christmas trees.  They also buy from others. My cousin grows 100 acres of'm and in them most every day except winter time. People grow mostly balsam and Fraser firs up here, some Scots Pine. Some even grow black spruce for the brush.

[Phorester]

NWP, sounds like an excellent location for a choose-and-cut operation and your built-in labor supply will be a big plus, if they will work for a number of years for you.  I found that shearing was the major drawback for growers.  A tree that has been sheared perfect for several years can be ruined in 30 seconds by somebody who doesn't know what he's doing.  So if you can get the same trained shearers back year after year instead of hiring different people you have to train every year, it will be a boon for you.

For spacing, you want as many trees as possible on each acre, without getting them so close that they either crowd each other and produce flat sides with no branches, or where you can't get between them to do the necessary work.  When shearing, you will have to walk a circle around each and every tree every year.  One local grower planted his 5' x 5' trying to maximize the number of trees per acre.  By the 5th year, when the trees were about 5' tall, he could not walk between them.  By the 7th year, he had mostly flat sided trees.  He sold some, but he greatly reduced his harvest numbers by planting too close.

I'd suggest a spacing of 2 feet wider than your mowing equipment, but no closer than 7' x 7' for every species.  Some think that firs and spruces, which are narrower than pines, can be planted closer.  But that doesn't work.  This will appear to be too wide a spacing when the trees are small, but by the 7th or 8th growing season they will be tight. Remember to leave room for the parking lot, and a road between every dozen or so rows for your own management access.

As far as a tree planting machine, we rent machines to landowners ourselves.  They can be pulled behind a tractor with a 3-point hitch.  You might want to see if your Stafe forestry agency does that. Other options you might have; One of our local high school welding classes built a machine that they also rented out. You might find a grower that wants to sell a machine he no longer needs.  Advantage of machine planting is that you can get very straight rows with minimum effort.  Straight rows make it easier to mow and apply herbicides.

The more species you can plant, the better sales you will have.    That's why Ben & Jerrys has so many flavors of ice cream.  ;D  But check soil types in your fields first. Soil type will determine what tree species will grow there the best, and most important, what will not grow. You will probably find that there are one or two species that are the bread-and-butter money maker for your locality, with other species being the icing on the cake if they will grow on your land within a reasonsble number of years to sell for Christmas trees.

Devote one area of your fields to each species; don't intermix them in the same rows, or alternate rows of pine with rows of fir, for instance.  Different species will have different insect and disease problems, and it will be a nightmare trying to control these if the species are intermixed all over the field.

Join your State or County Christmas Tree Assn, talk to your county extension agent, your local State Forester to see if they can provide information or resources, your State land grant unversity where they will have a forestry department.

[NWP]

Phorester, thanks for your information and time.  I'll get going on some things and see how it goes.

[thecfarm]

Phorester,sounds like he knows what he's talking about.  ;D

[Ron Scott]

Some general information provided by the National and Michigan Christmas Tree Associations. We have major growers here in this part of Northwestern Lower Michigan. The Extension Service is also a primary source of information.   

http://www.realchristmastrees.org/dnn/AllAboutTrees.aspx

http://www.mcta.org/

[Chuck White]

The biggest problem I've seen with Christmas tree farms in this area is the lots are usually too big!

Some of those farms now have Spruce and Scotch Pine so thick you can't get through it!

Suggest plant in small lots rather than big acreage!

Do like you said, plant your 10 acres in increments, not all of it in the same year!