From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Newville

Next year I wanted to plant and grow x-mas trees beside my pumpkins. I was wondering if anyone was growing pine trees. and could give me a few pointers.

12/12/2001 6:33:18 PM

Geneseo, NY

PumpkinCrAzY, I dont have any helpful pointers but can tell you christmas trees can be alot of work. planting, trimming, mowing around them, and diseases. My brother and I attempted to grow some on land that we did not farm. We thought it would be nice to have them for family & friends at christmas time. We spent several days getting the ground ready and a couple more planting. We planted 250 trees by hand and only 3 of them survived. That was the end of our christmas tree growing venture. We still laugh about it every christmas when its time to cut a tree. Good luck with your tree growing.

12/12/2001 7:10:46 PM

Puyallup, WA

Even in the Evergreen State, it is hard to grow Christmas trees!

12/12/2001 10:15:16 PM

Webster, NY

I had a friend who would plant 1000 douglas fir seedlings on his property each year and would lose 50 to 75% each year to mice, disease, deer and other problems. Then if they grow, they have to be taken care of to make good christmas trees.

12/12/2001 10:33:32 PM

Tipp City, Ohio

My neighbor has about 10 acres in Christmas trees. He is retired and has the time to put into it. He said that it is more work than his old job, but he can do it when he wants to...Tom

12/12/2001 10:46:37 PM

Rush, NY

I started a Christmas tree adventure in 1995 with 2000 Duglas Fir and 1000 Concolor Fir. It was my intention to sell Christmas trees when I tired of growing 5 acres of pumpkins to sell. I added 1000 trees per year until I had planted a total of 8000, all planted by hand. Survival of the Concolor Fir has been about 25%. About 65% of the Duglas Fir survived. Neither kind will grow in areas that are wet in the spring. To get good shaped trees you need to start prunning in the 3rd year. I didn't start until the 5th year for those planted in 1995, so it will be at least 2 more years before some could be sold. I may never sell any. I get discouraged when "Buck" deer rub out one side of the best trees. They damage at least 50 each fall. Also when deep snow is on the ground for long periods, they go down the rows of the smaller ones and eat the tops off, which can destroy its potential use as a Christmas tree. You should prune these trees in August, but I don' get to it till November and it takes me about 3 weeks 6 hours per day to prune the estimated 4000 trees that survived. It takes longer each year as some of the older trees require prunning about 75 branches. We did cut 4 trees for family members this year that were 6 to 7 feet tall.

12/13/2001 6:32:10 AM

Ga.

Hey Len,,just call me,,and I'll take care of those buck deer,,lol....

12/13/2001 8:31:31 AM

Long Island,New York

19 bucks at Home Depot....LOL.........G

12/13/2001 5:41:51 PM

Tacoma, WA

....and they are probably from Washington! Not DC. either.....they give you another kind of shaft!!:>)

12/13/2001 6:55:47 PM

South Hill, Virginia

There is an inexpensive book on the subject at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0882665669/qid=1008346027/sr=1-24/ref=sr_1_79_24/103-3162738-4099813
I read it just out of interest last year but have yet to plant the first christmas tree.

12/14/2001 11:02:33 AM

Deer Park WA

Deer Len, will you please adopt me. I promise to be a very good student!

12/15/2001 12:11:10 AM

Connecticut

Getting them to surive...well that's the easy part, but to get them to look like trees...that's another story.

12/15/2001 8:18:03 AM

Newville

OK thanks for all the help. I will only be starting out with 15-20 trees and then add more and more. Thanks again.

12/17/2001 7:22:43 PM