Christmas Tree Farming 101
Oh Christmas tree. Oh Christmas tree.
‘Tis the season!
Ever wonder how your beautifully decorated tree made it into your living room?
Probably not.
But make no doubt about it, it wasn’t a quick, painless process.
Growing Christmas trees is no easy venture. In fact, it is a rather long-term (5-10 years) agricultural venture, requiring a great deal of skill, financial backing, and work.
Before you even fantasize about launching a Christmas tree operation, fully understand the requirements:
- A sufficient plot of suitable land.
- A suitable tree species for the land.
- Strategic site preparation and planting, including an optimal layout of fields and farm roads to reduce risk of pest problems and to lower harvesting costs.
- A good deal of capital.
- Sufficient and periodic labor.
- Special agricultural equipment.
- Intensive care, including mechanical mowing, shaping, shearing, pruning, and pest control during the growing season to produce a quality product.
- Integrated pest management, implementing effective cultural practices and pesticide applications to limit pest issues.
- Optimum fertilization, complete with nutrients that are more resistant to pest issues and environmental stresses.
- Water quality management to protect sedimentation and contamination by fertilizers or pesticides.
- Proper groundcover management.
- Solid record keeping, including a map of the farm layout complete with information on fields, roads, topography, drainage systems, species and number of trees per field, and planting dates clearly reported.
- A long-term plan and budget to support this long-term, expensive endeavor.
Interested in Christmas tree production? Want to diversify your Christmas tree farm? Call on us here at AgAmerica, an ag lending company with years of lending experience. Through our AgAmerica Lending Program we offer ag loans covering all facets of farming, from smaller hobby farm loans to larger timberland loans. When it’s time to plant your next row crop, expand your Christmas tree farms, or plant timber, these agricultural loans are a great choice!
