Vermont Christmas Tree Association

So you want to grow Christmas Trees!

salofarm — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:07:46 +0000

By Fred Salo

Have you ever given it a thought? Maybe you live in town and wish to buy a farm. Maybe you own a farm but don’t farm it or maybe your farm has some open land not used, a field or hill side and your tired of mowing it yourself. You think maybe you should plant trees! Especially around November when you see the Trucks on the Thruway heading south to points unknown. And Christmas Tree retail stands popping up everywhere it just seems that it would be a perfect plan for that open space of yours. Probably would help contribute to taxes and might even help with those college expenses and it would be a great family outing every weekend. What a picture!

But that is as far as it goes for most. Christmas is over, your own tree is a bird feeder in the backyard or buried in two feet of snow and life goes on as usual. This thought of growing trees goes away for another year.

Growing trees is an illness.(in my opinion) If a little scratching makes it go away you only have a mild case but if the thought remains you may have Christmas Tree fever. The only known cure I know is to give it a “whorl”. (fir trees are opposite branched)

Then the question is apt to be ( especially by those of us that already grow trees) is “why did I ever start to grow trees?
To each his own on answering this question but here are a few reasons.

First of all the Fir trees grown in Vermont,Balsam especially, are natural to a lot of the State. In other words indigenous to the mountains of Vermont. It must mean stick them in the ground and reap profits 7 years from now. Wrong!

Profits are a lure. 1500 to 3000 per acre with interplanting has to be better than hay that no one wants. In fact if you do the math it does make the acre vary valuable. (But it does tie up the acre for 7 to 15 years.) You probably would find selling that acre difficult to justify. And you could have trouble selling those trees.

Satisfying that green thumb. If planted in the right spot fir trees just grow well. They survive weather extremes, including 3ft of snow,-40 degees to 100 degrees, random abuse and even if planted crooked they grow straight to the sun. In you think you have a black thumb, these little “pups” as I call them will prove that you do in fact have a green thumb. They are amazing. But planting in the wrong spots can mean disaster.

Then there is one more thing. When you plant a tree to adorn the yard or you cut a tree for saw logs you look at trees as ornamental or as one that is mature and should be cut as a cash crop. When you grow a tree for Christmas it takes on a totally different perspective. Grown for one of the holiest of all days of the year it is part of the tradition and becomes a center piece for a family. And even if it is referred to as a “charlie brown” it is so lovingly and is qualified as being such a beautful tree. Best we ever had! It came from that farm up there in the Northeast Kingdom. Compliments make it all worth while. Warning: in this day and age a farm can only have a few charlies.

Just wanting to grow Christmas trees is reason enough but is not as easy as one would think, as future articles under “Abies Sermo”will show. But for those of us that are in the business it takes second place only to family. If you ask a tree farmer about growing trees better be prepared to spend awhile. Early on my Wife and I stopped by to see one of the founding fathers of the plantation grown trees.The Mrs. invited my wife in for tea because she said if your husband is anything like my husband they will be in the field for some time. She was right.

Tree and Site selection

salofarm — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:05:54 +0000

By Fred Salo

The two most popular Christmas trees sold in the eastern part of the United States are Balsam Fir and Fraser Fir. Other trees used would include cedar,pine,douglas fir,concolor fir,spruce and other variations of the same, but Balsam and Fraser are the tree of choice by most growers in Vermont. Both these species grow well in most of Vermont’s growing conditions. (Note problems under site selection).

By definition: Abies , Balsamea and Fraseri

Balsam and Fraser serve their best purpose growing at high altitudes and should not be grown outside their native habitats. These species thrive in the cool moist atmosphere of the mountains but when grown in areas where the summers are hot and dry, they are not long lived and become spindly and sickly in appearance.( Wymans Encycopedia)

When choosing a site for creating a Christmas Tree Farm a great deal of care should be taken to make sure you have as many of the ingredients as you can that will make the trees grow well. Thinking elevation is the key is not the total answer. The following would be my list of important factors with reasons why.

Elevation; no magic number but a 1000ft to 2500ft would be good. Too high stunts growth and too low may not have the air flow to keep late frosts from injuring new growth.(i.e. frost pockets)

Moisture; trees like plenty of moisture but do not like wet feet. The site must have a history of low water tables. If the site is dry the year you plant only to be wet in other
years the trees will either die out or lack growth and color and be unsaleable.

Soils; Well drained and having a texture that holds some moisture and suspends additives.
Fir trees are not too fussy but do not do well in clay soils or in sandy soils.

Sun; full sun is necessary. A field may be in full sun but have shady sides. Best to leave extra service space along the shadier side.

Air circulation; Is important not only to hedge against late frosts but helps against fungus,
and probably would keep some of those pesty insects moving.( A friend in NH says he has no insects on his farm because the winds blow them all to VT.)

Snow cover; Mother natures mulch is necessary especially on new plantings. Areas known
to have lite or no snow covers some years will cause problems.

There are other considerations such as soil ph and nutrients, deer and moose populations. vandalism,road dust, thievery, water source, road access to name a few.

Delving into all the above can become quite technical. A quick rule of thumb is to look at the surrounding area and see if balsam are growing naturally. If they are not the chances are good that the site is not located in what I call a “Fir Belt” and probably will not produce Fir trees easily. Or some years ok and some not so good.

So if you own land and want to try growing trees keep the above in mind and realize you could experience a few difficulties if some of the mentioned factors are a problem. If you go looking for a site it would be best to keep the above front and center and don’t stop looking until most of the criteria is met.(no sense in rowing upstream if you don’t have to.)!

Christmas Tree Traditions

admin — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:37:05 +0000

The decorated Christmas tree can be traced back to the ancient Romans who during their winter festival decorated trees with small pieces of metal during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture.

An evergreen, the Paradise tree, was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve held on December 24th during the middle ages.

Christmas trees were sold in Alsace in 1531. Alsace was at that time a part of Germany. Today it is part of France. The trees were sold at local markets and set up in homes undecorated.

In the Ammerschweier in Alsace there was an ordinance that stated no person “shall have for Christmas more than one bush of more than eight shoe lengths.”

Sixteenth century folklore credited Martin Luther as being the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walk through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his family and showed them by bringing a tree into their home and decorating it with candles. Some historians state that the first evidence of a lighted tree appeared more than a century after Martin Luther’s death in 1546.

The oldest record of a decorated Christmas tree came from a 1605 diary found in Strasburg, France (Germany in 1605). The tree was decorated with paper roses, apples and candies.

In Austria & Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the tops of evergreens were cut and hung upside down in a living room corner. They were decorated with apples, nuts and strips of red paper.

The first record of Christmas trees in America was for children in the German Moravian Church’s settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Christmas 1747. Actual trees were not decorated, but wooden pyramids covered with evergreen branches were decorated with candles.

The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops. An early account tells of a Christmas tree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn, Illinois, the site of Chicago, in 1804. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania.

In 1841 the German Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, decorated a large Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, reminiscent of his childhood celebrations in Germany (the Christmas tree had been a deep-rooted German tradition since the 18th century).

In 1834, Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was credited with bringing the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal Family. Some historians state that in actuality Queen Charlotte, Victoria’s grandmother, recalled that a Christmas tree was in the Queen’s lodge at Windsor on Christmas Day in 1800.

Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1842.

By 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states. Until this time, it had been considered a quaint foreign custom.

Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York in 1851, and opened the first retail Christmas tree lot in the United States.

Franklin Pierce was the first president to introduce the Christmas tree to the White House in 1856 for a group of Washington Sunday School children. The first national Christmas Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.

Christmas Trees at the White House
A tree from the National Christmas Tree Association has been displayed in the Blue Room of the White House since 1966.

Christmas Tree Traditions Around the World
Learn about Christmas tree traditions outside the United States.

An American Christmas Decade by Decade
Follow the story of how we came to celebrate Christmas as a National Holiday.

Legends of Christmas
Stories of how caroling, candy canes, gift giving, poinsettias and other customs became part of Christmas traditions.

Origins of Other Christmas Traditions
Check out the origins of other Christmas traditions.

The Chronological History of the Christmas Tree
Follow the history of the Christmas tree through the centuries.

Christmas Tree Facts

admin — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:36:10 +0000

Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850.
Until fairly recently, all Christmas trees came from the forest.
More than 2,000 trees are usually planted per acre. On an average 1,000-1,500 of these trees will survive. In the North, maybe, 750 trees will remain. Almost all trees require shearing to attain the Christmas tree shape. At six to seven feet, trees are ready for harvest. It takes six to ten years of fighting heavy rain, wind, hail and drought to get a mature tree.
In the United States, there are more than 21, 000 Christmas tree growers.
In the United States, there are more than 12,000 cut-your-own farms.
In 1979, the National Christmas Tree was not lighted except for the top ornament. This was done in honor of the American hostages in Iran.
From 1887-1933 a fishing schooner called the “Christmas Ship” would tie up at the Clark Street Bridge in Chicago and sell spruce trees from Michigan to Chicagoans.
The tradition of an official Chicago Christmas tree was initiated in 1913 when one was first lit by Mayor Carter H. Harrison in Grant Park.
Since 1966, the National Christmas Tree Association has given a Christmas tree to the President and first family.
The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510.
Growing Christmas trees provides a habitat for wildlife.
Recycled trees have been used to make sand and soil erosion barriers and been placed in ponds for fish shelter.
The first Christmas tree retail lot in the United States was started in 1851 in New York by Mark Carr.
Christmas trees take an average of 7-10 years to mature.
Christmas trees remove dust and pollen from the air.
Since 1971, the Province of Nova Scotia has presented the Boston Christmas Tree tree to the people of Boston in gratitude for the relief supplies received from the citizens of Boston after a ship exploded in 1917 following a collision in the Halifax, Nova Scotia Harbor. Part of the city was leveled killing injuring thousands.
The use of evergreen trees to celebrate the winter season occurred before the birth of Christ.
Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska.
100,000 people are employed in the Christmas tree industry.
98 percent of all Christmas trees are grown on farms.
In 1856 Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, was the first President to place a Christmas tree in the White House.
President Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn in 1923.
In 2002, 21% of United States households had a real tree, 48% had an artificial tree and 32% had not tree.
73 million new Christmas trees will be planted this year.
In 2002, 32 percent of Christmas trees displayed in United States were real trees; 49% were fake trees.
On average, over 2,000 Christmas trees are planted per acre.
You should not burn your Christmas tree in the fireplace; it can contribute to creosote buildup.
Other types of trees such as cherry and hawthorns were used as Christmas trees in the past.
Artificial trees will last for six years in your home, but for centuries in a landfill.
There are over 500 Christmas tree growers in Illinois.
In 2002, over 144,000 real trees were harvested in Illinois.
Using small candles to light a Christmas tree dates back to the middle of the 17th century.
Nineteenth century Americans cut their trees in nearby forests.
Thomas Edison’s assistant, Edward Johnson, came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882.
Christmas tree lights were first mass produced in 1890.
In 1963, the National Christmas Tree was not lighted until December 22nd because of a national 30-day period of mourning following the assassination of President Kennedy.
Teddy Roosevelt banned the Christmas tree from the White House for environmental reasons.
In the first week, a tree in your home will consume as much as a quart of water per day.
Michigan ranks third (2.4 million trees in 2002) among all states in the production of real Christmas trees, but grows a larger variety (13) of Christmas trees than any other state.
A Christmas tree decoration was banned by the government. Tinsel contained lead at one time, now it’s made of plastic.
Real Christmas trees are involved in less than one-tenth of one percent of residential fires and only when ignited by some external ignition sources.
In 1998 more than 32 million Real Christmas Trees were used in the U.S. Of these, only 0.00093% were ignited in home fires.
93% of real Christmas tree consumers recycle their tree in community recycling programs, their garden or backyard.
In 2003, 21% of Christmas trees sold were from chain stores, 15% by non-profit groups. 13% from retail lots and 35% from choose and cut farms.
An estimated 175,000 Real Christmas Trees are sold via e-commerce or catalogue and shipped mail-order.
In 2005 the retail market value of the 32.8 million trees purchased at the average purchase price of $41.90 was $1,374 million.
32.8 million Christmas trees were purchased in 2005.
Christmas trees are baled to protect the branches from damage during shipping.
34-36 million Christmas trees were harvested in the United States in 2001.
Helicopters help to lift harvested Christmas trees from farms.
An acre of Christmas trees provides for the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people.
In 1984, the National Christmas was lit on December 13th with temperatures in the 70′s, making it one of the warmest tree lightings in history.
In 1900, large stores started to erect big illuminated Christmas trees.
Every year since 1947, the people of Oslo, Norway have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster, England. The gift is an expression of good will and gratitude for Britain’s help to Norway during World War II.
The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.
Oregon produces the most real Christmas trees. In 2002, 6.4 million trees were harvested in Oregon.
Oregon led the nation in 2002 with 67,804 acres in Christmas tree production. Illinois had 6,355 acres in production.
In 2002, 446,996 acres of land in the United States were in Christmas Tree production.
2-3 seedlings are planted for every harvested Christmas tree. In 2004 sixty million Christmas tree seedlings were planted by Christmas tree farmers.
93% of real Christmas tree consumers recycle their tree in community recycling programs, their garden or backyard.
In 2003, 78% of Christmas trees purchased were pre-cut and 22% were cut your own.
30-35 million Real Christmas Trees are sold in the U.S. every year.