Christmas Trees

[Ashes_Firewood]

Anyone on here grow Christmas trees?

 

Is there a lot of maintenance involved or is it just a case of plant them and leave them to it? Only thinking small scale, maybe a couple hundred trees rather than thousands. Trying to weigh it all up. Got a couple of spare lumps of land we could use.

 

Just looking for some first hand experience and advice if possible as I gather now is the time of year to be planting them.

 

Cheers

 

 

Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

[woody woodpecker]

Hi we dont grow them but we have a good friend that does and there is a lot of pruning involved (every year) to get the trees to grow into a nice shape and they also suffer a lot from aphid attack and need to be sprayed yearly.

hope this helps

p.s you will need to do a soil test as they will not grow in some types of soil.

 

 

thanks chris

[csservices]

I planted a load some years back on some rough ground, then other commitments overtook me and they never got managed, have got a few good ones out of them but most are well over 20ft now with no shape to them so their up for thinning this winter.

[peatff]

Anyone on here grow Christmas trees?

Just looking for some first hand experience and advice if possible as I gather now is the time of year to be planting them.

Cheers

 

They must be fast growing, it's only 17 day to go till Christmas There was a bit on a radio Leeds program this morning. My wife listens to Tim and Joe every Sunday and someone was asking about Christmas trees. There was a specific variety of tree mentioned, can't remember what it was but it is favoured over the older variety for needle retention and shape.

[Scott Walker]

We grow them and sell around 2, 000 a year manly Norway Spruce and Nordman fir and a around 150 fraser fir which we find harder to grow. Definitely alot of maintenance with trees you can't plant them and forget about them. Area needs rabbit fencing off before planting then you have weed in between them until they get established. Spray them for aphids etc. Then when they get older need pruning to get a nice shape and it goes on. But worth it if your willing to put the work in. We buy them in at 2+1 two years in nursery bed then one year out. Then we plant them on and wait another 6+ years before harvesting so a long process

Edited December 8, 2013 by Scott Walker

[renewablejohn]

We used to rent 2500 live trees a year mainly Norway Spruce but also Nordman, Frasier,

Korean,Noble, Konica and a couple of silver leaf firs. We used a form of Bonsai to keep the trees small and compact.

[Charlieh]

Other thing is stopping light fingered types from helping themselves one of the woodlands round here is targetted every winter however this time we had some trailcams out so someone is going to get a visit soon from the police

[Gnome]

We used to rent 2500 live trees a year mainly Norway Spruce but also Nordman, Frasier,

Korean,Noble, Konica and a couple of silver leaf firs. We used a form of Bonsai to keep the trees small and compact.

 

 

Did you undercut the roots as well as top pruning to get a good branching structure or growth retardants? just interested.

[RobRainford]

we have about 40k growing here, planting 10k per year to become completely sustainable with our own stock this decade.

 

They dont require a huge amount of work but need to be managed like any crop, pest and diseases, fertilising, with trees they need shaping and leaders selecting to make sure they grow straight, tricky with the frasers as they seem to want to grow a couple of leaders if left alone where the nordmans wont.

 

if your growing a few hundred you wont get a huge return, it would be more feasible using it for faster rotation crops.

 

we are beginning to get a good return on our 7 year old trees this season and will get three years plus out of whats still there after this season.

[renewablejohn]

Did you undercut the roots as well as top pruning to get a good branching structure or growth retardants? just interested.

 

 

Mainly root pruning and plant pot size restriction only going up 5 ltrs pot size every time repotted. Top pruning very minimal as root pruning produces a very compact tree. Never had any need for retardants.