A Year in the Life of a Christmas Tree

December 4th, 2018

   We take for granted all of those Christmas trees that magically show up in retail lots and in garden centers this time of year.

It’s not easy to get conifers to this point…

   It’s not easy to grow a fir or a pine or a spruce – as if I have to tell any of you that who have seen your conifers rot in this soggy season or succumb to assorted bugs and blights.

   Christmas-tree growers run into the same challenges. A few years ago, I talked to Rod Wert, who’s been growing Christmas trees for nearly 30 years at his 140-acre Blue Ridge Christmas Tree Farm in Lebanon County, about the average seven-year ordeal of babying a conifer from seedling to cut Christmas tree.

   Here’s what I wrote for a Patriot-News column…

   Rod Wert knows as much about firs and pines and spruce as anyone. Yet he’ll tell you that growing them is anything but easy or reliable.

   One look at his pile of dead Fraser firs, and you get the point.

   “When we bought this farm, the whole thing was in corn,” says Wert. “And it was gorgeous corn. But growing corn and growing trees is two different things.”

   So much can go wrong with conifers.

   They rot in wet soil. Young ones die in dry soil.

   Some are quick to get fatal root diseases. Others are prone to diseases that make the needles drop.

   Bugs are a threat to all of them.

   And lately, 100-degree summers and abnormally warm winters are taking a toll on species more at home in Maine weather than Virginia’s.

   It’s enough to make you wonder how we end up with anything for Christmas after the average seven years it takes to get a tree from sapling to cuttable size.

Blue Ridge’s field of Fraser firs.

   Growers like Wert know it’s futile to plant in low or wet spots because most conifers hate wet feet.

   “You first have to find a fertile, well drained piece of land,” Wert says. “And you can’t have hardpan (a shallow rock layer) either, because you’ll get a drought and lose them all.”

   Wert also has learned the intricacies of different species – i.e. spruce and pines are a tad more tolerant of damp soil than firs, and Fraser firs tend to do best on north-facing slopes.

   Still, siting is somewhat of a crap shoot. Wert says you never really know what’s going to work until you try and see.

   Most frustrating is soil-borne disease.

   Wert has had particular trouble with a fungal disease called phytophthora, which is a serious threat to Fraser firs and a big reason why that so-called “Cadillac of Christmas trees” is also the most expensive.

   Wert has seen the disease wipe out thousands of his Fraser firs, only to mysteriously stop its spread to allow the remaining crop to mature nicely.

   Work on a Christmas-tree farm isn’t limited to just November and December.

   Wert’s season starts at the end of winter when he applies a pre-emergent herbicide and Roundup (a common weed-killer) to control weeds.

Fertilizing all of the acres of trees by hand is a time-consuming process.

   Then it’s time to fertilize the trees, which Wert and his son, Tyler, do by scattering granular fertilizer by hand from 80-pound backpacks.

   Wert says it’s more accurate and less wasteful that way.

   Too much fertilizer, and the trees put out a lot of upright or leggy growth that only has to be pruned off anyway.

   When fertilizing is done, April and May are prime months to prepare the soil and plant new trees. Wert estimates he’s planted some 100,000 saplings over the years.

   He buys them frozen, bare-root (no soil) and boxed, usually 4 to 5 years old from seed and less than 2 feet tall.

   They’re dipped into a polymer slurry before planting and dropped into the tilled soil one by one.

   The first few months are riskiest since few conifer growers have irrigation. Mature trees are drought-tolerant.

   “You’re at the mercy of weather then,” Wert says.

   From April through the end of June, trees are sprayed for bugs and/or disease. That varies by species, weather, and what troubles happen to be brewing each year.

   Spring is also when mowing grass between the rows begins.

   “We’re constantly mowing throughout the summer,” says Wert.

Rod Wert pruning a Christmas-tree-to-be.

   Summer is also when another big job happens – pruning.

   All of the trees get a trim each year, starting with the pines and working through the spruce and firs.

   Wert uses a gas-powered rotary pruner that looks a lot like a long-handled weed-whacker with two very sharp blades on the business end.

   “Every tree is different and needs its own pruning,” he says. “Some want to be skinny, some want to be fat. It’s like being an artist.”

   On a typical summer day, it’s not unusual for Wert to clip 1,000 trees.

   Just as pruning winds down, it’s time to fertilize the Douglas firs (they prefer early-fall feeding), apply a late-season weed-killer, and spray repellents to keep deer from eating the profits.

   Then it’s time to start cutting for retail customers and setting up for the bread-and-butter, cut-your-own crowds.

   “Everybody comes on weekends between 12 and 2 p.m.,” says Wert. “One day we had 750 people cut trees in 2 hours.”

   Practically the whole year’s business takes place between the day after Thanksgiving and Dec. 15.

   “After that, you’re spending a lot of time in the cold selling not a lot of trees,” says Wert.

   Finally, Christmas comes, and the rush is over almost as suddenly as it began.

   “January and February, I sit by the woodstove,” says Wert. “For Christmas-tree growers, that’s our heaven.”