See Main Page: Starting A Christmas Tree Farm
From the customer:
Hello Rick, Thank you for your time, love your story and website. My wife and I always wanted to have a Christmas Tree Farm with several other activities and revenue streams. We came across your website and you certainly know your business. We are in the market for our land now, I learned from your website that the Fraser Fir plug seedlings would appear to be best suitable for the 6 & 7 zone climate Roanoke, Virginia has. We were thinking of planting these seedlings now with the hopes in 4-5 years they will be big enough to sell to cut to start our business.
1. How many years would a plug seedling take to reach 6-7 feet. (I believe I saw 6-12 years?)
2. Would irrigation be needed most likely?
3. I was planning on starting off with 300 Fraser Fir Plug Seedlings- See how it goes for the first year and do another 300 each year?
4. I was looking at the distance between seedlings and 8 feet apart and 15 feet rows looks solid…is this what you would do?
5. Keeping weeds higher when young seedlings may help from frost, would you recommend?
Thank you for your time and Merry Christmas!
Our reply:
Thanks for your very kind email! Your plan certainly sounds solid, and yes you have all of your facts straight to the best of my knowledge and experience.
First I would add that there have been instances of an entire crop or field of Fraser Fir being wiped out by phytophthora root rot. This root disease has been around forever, and is the cause of the Irish potato famine back in the 1800s. Fraser fir are the most popular of christmas tree species for several reasons, but they are much more susceptible to this disease than similar species such as balsam fir and Canaan fir, black hills spruce, etc. So one humble suggestion is to hedge your bets against future pests and disease by planting multiple species.
Most christmas trees at harvest typically only have a spread [width] of at most 4 to 5 feet, so that means you can plant the trees only about 5-6 feet apart in each row and still walk between them at harvest time. And yes if you need to drive equipment through the field, you only need a wider path between EVERY OTHER row, since you can access the trees on each side of your vehicle. You could even make a vehicle path every third or fourth row depending on your access needs.
And yes irrigation will be very important in the first year or two, particularly during heat waves or droughts. Drip irrigation is expensive but effective. If you don’t have easy access to water, you can put something large like a 55 gallon drum in the back of a truck and then fill it with water, and then siphon that water out to the trees using a garden hose. We have a video currently under construction in which I use an auger to plant the plug seedlings, but then use that auger to also plant an upside down long-necked plastic funnel-shaped bottle near each tree [bottom cut off]. This makes it easy to pour a couple of quarts into each bottle, which directs the water directly to the tree roots. It’s a very simple method of watering a lot of trees fairly quickly. That video should be up within the next week or two.
Irrigating using standard sprinklers wastes a lot of water, but if you have a late frost, running irrigation at night will prevent frost damage. Water freezes at 32°, but trees don’t start getting damaged by frost until it gets down to 28°. So pumping water puts just enough heat onto the trees to keep them from getting damaged, even if they end up covered in ice. I have seen this many times. Pumping your own water is much cheaper than using city water. So that is something to look at as well
I think that’s enough to digest for now 😁
Let me know if you have any further questions…be glad to help.
Best – Rick