E-Mail 'Christmas Tree Farming for Fun & Profit, by W.W.' To A Friend

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19 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing your experience with Christmas tree farming! Many years ago, I read a middle-grade age book about a girl who finds an orphaned wolf puppy in the middle of her family’s Christmas tree farm in the great northwest (Montana?) and HOW MUCH WORK it was as they had to go out and prune all those trees, and then harvest, bag, and ship them to the cities for barely pennies. If anybody remembers the name of that book, speak up! I’d like to get it for my kids.

    We have people who grow trees around here to sell to the landscapers and home centers, but not many Christmas tree farms unless you take a very long drive.

          1. Yes!!! That’s it! Thank you … couldn’t remember the name and couldn’t find it.

            Gonna order a copy for my kids to read. The girl lives on a Christmas tree farm in Montana, homeschools, and finds an orphaned wolf pup.

  2. I had a Christmas tree farm in Vermont, I would plant around 2500 trees per year. I did not have the high mortality that the writer did, mainly because of Vermont’s rain fall. He is right about becoming friends with the people that came to cut trees. I haven’t sold a tree in 10 years but I’m still known as the Christmas tree man. I use to have hot cider available for free for customers, I could go through 20 gallons a weekend. People ask me why I don’t still do it, 1: I’m currently 65, this is a physically demanding job. 2: Its real nice to get a lot of cash in a few weeks but if you figure out your pay per hour of work, you’d be better off working at McDonalds.

  3. One of the shortcomings of globalization not mentioned by the urban News Media is the frequent importation of destructive pests. Gypsy moth. Ash trees being destroyed by Emerald Ash borer. etc

    A new imported pest making its way across Pennsylvania is the Spotted Lantern Fly — a significant threat to fruit trees, grape vineyards, and Christmas trees. If you have any Tree of Heaven trees on your property it might help to destroy them. Although that requires Roundup on the root system and some environmental groups are trying to get Roundup banned.

    https://extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly

    This report estimates the economic damage to various Pennsylvania agricultural and forestry products from the spread of the fly — page 16 notes the harm to Christmas Tree crops.

    https://www.rural.palegislature.us/documents/reports/Spotted-Lanternfly-2019.pdf

    It also estimates the costs to the landowners of trying to suppress /control the fly. If your county comes under quarantine, you will have to get a special permit in order to sell the trees– as noted in the first link above.

    1. Try using Triclopyr-4 instead of Roundup. I used it on a very thick (inches apart) stand of arelia trees. They can tolerate a huge amount of damage, and their vicious little thorny selves bounce right back, thicker than ever. They spread through roots, and tens of thousands of seeds apiece.

      The Triclopyr-4 killed them very permanently dead. Triclopyr-4 is about as non-toxic as a weed and tree killer can be. It disintegrates in about an hour.

      You should mix it with an oil to get it to stick. The only real drawback is the hideously expensive price, but it is cheaper than getting cancer.

      My next door neighbor used Roundup on an arelia infested part of her property. The next year, two of my outdoor cats died of cancer. It was pathetic; they were too feral to help. I had had an outdoor colony for eight years, and all of the cats were perfectly healthy before that.

  4. PS My wife and I have been buying Christmas trees from a local farm for 25 years — one of our favorite Christmas traditions. In part because it’s nice to walk across the fields and choose the tree. Plus the farmer has a haywagon pulled by a tractor that periodically comes around and carries us, our tree and other families back to the loading area. Where the farming family has hot apple cider.

    It is also a favorite tradition because we did it with our son over the years as he grew up — we still remember the fun he had as a little guy.

    Unfortunately, suburban development is surrounding the farm and I fear the Covid virus –another imported pest — will ruin this years Christmas revenue for the farm and make it hard to pay property taxes.

    1. We have utilized “Cut your own” Christmas Tree farms since moving to our retreat home 8 years ago. We went out yesterday to find and cut our tree. For the first time ever, we came across multiple farms that had been forced to close early this year–but not for a lack of business, rather, because they sold out of trees. It seems the virus has encouraged more people to cut their own this year, and to do it earlier than ever. I never expected to see a shortage of Christmas trees, but that is exactly what we have here in N Ga. We were unable to find any trees in our normal 10′-12′ height, instead having to cut a 14’+ tree and take off the bottom. Hopefully those tree growers have taken in some higher than normal profits this year, too.

  5. Anne,

    I believe the book you are looking for is My Wolf, My Friend (also called Sasha, My Friend) by Barbara Corcoran. I read it as a kid and got it for my girls. Only one read most of it, and she quit when it got too sad. I don’t remember the Christmas tree farm. I don’t recall why the girl moved to Montana after her mother died, but the rest of it fits.

    Angela

  6. I liked the article about raising the trees. This comment is about the upcoming Georgia senate elections. All conservative voters need to take a photo of their ballot
    choices and then if the state republican party has a web site then email the photo to the website as a record of their vote. It would be evideince of their vote and also record the number of votes.

    1. I live in the California Soviet Socialist Republic. I wish I had taken a picture of my ballot. All I can do now is to keep searching for jobs in the Redoubt or another red state.

  7. I have considered Christmas tree farming on the limited acres available to me but the amount I could get from them due to the limited amount at any given harvest negated that idea. Drylands grain is the better option but requires more harvesting equip.
    I do remember though, buying Christmas trees when a kid running about 5-10 bucks. Yeah, I am that old. Surprising I’m still here eh! But good on ya for even attempting to make a go at it. My hats off to ya.

  8. I remember when I was eight or nine my dad and neighbor planted 3-5 acres of saplings. They used some sort of tractor pulled machine. Low to the ground, it had a flat front section where the saplings laid, some sort of v-type plow center rear, and two angled rear tires behind that to push the dirt back around the trees. I don’t recall if the trees were fed automatically or hand dropped. Also I don’t recall anyone ever shaping the trees in the following years. Eight years later I got paid to set in my car and sell them. “Cut your own – $2.00”. Back then you didn’t need a perfect Christmas tree. Kids were more interested in what was under the tree than the tree itself. Just think of all the people today that probably think every pine tree looks like a perfectly shaped Christmas tree.

  9. A friend of mine grew up with a Christmas tree farm. His parents bought it, the kids worked it, and the profits were saved and used to pay for the kids’ college educations. Three kids, a doctorate or two and master’s degrees. I think they had a modest 20 acres and I don’t have any other details. Good planning and the entrepreneurial spirit allowed them good educations without incurring overwhelming debt.

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