Tree farming requires putting down roots

By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- For some people, cutting down a live Christmas tree doesn't make them think of how nice their living room will look or how the room will smell of fresh pine.
They pay their $30 and think, "For that price, maybe I should be selling trees."
Debbie Kazimer hears that a lot at the family's tree farm near Newton Falls. She's quick to defend the pricing.
"I say, 'Hey, I've got a lot of hours in that tree,'" she said.
There's one question that has to be answered before deciding to start a tree farm, she said.
"How much time do you have? It's going to take a lot."
Veteran tree growers are on the lookout for people like the Kazimers who are willing to give the time that it takes to run a tree farm. They are among the newer tree farmers in the area.
The Northeast Ohio Christmas Tree Growers Association, which covers Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, held a clinic for new growers in September. About 50 people attended, although most of them were from outside the area.
Planted 12 years ago: Kazimer and her husband, James, planted seedlings on their South Canal Road farm 12 years ago but started selling their first trees from Kazimer Tree Farm just two years ago.
Not only does the time it takes for trees to grow make the business tough, but so does the planting, pruning, fertilizing and mowing of their three acres of trees, Mrs. Kazimer said.
"We do a lot of mowing," she said.
Pruning starts in June or July when the weather gets warm and continues until it's done, she said. How long is that?
"I'm not done yet," she said.
The Kazimers, who have two children 13 and 10, don't seem to have much time for a tree farm. Both work full time at other jobs. He works in maintenance at Atomic Box in Aurora, and she is a tow motor driver at KraftMaid in Middlefield.
Mrs. Kazimer said she doesn't mind the extra work, however, because she loves being outside.
Welcoming new growers: Lyle Bailey, president of the area growers association, said there's plenty of room for new farms in the area. Growers don't worry about losing customers to other farms, he said. They worry about them giving up on live trees.
"We know who our enemy is, and that's the artificial tree," said Bailey, who owns Bailey Tree Farm in Lordstown.
Throughout the industry, the number of tree farms is going down because children aren't taking over when their parents retire, he said. A couple of tree farms in the Mahoning Valley have closed in the past year, he said.
What to expect: Mary Jane Perdulla of Pioneer Trails Tree Farm in Poland, which was host of the new growers clinic, said growers are encouraging people to enter the business but they want to be realistic.
"You don't just put a little seedling in the ground and forget about it," she said.
Besides the work, there's risk.
Her farm, for example, lost 30 percent of its newly planted seedlings because of low rainfall this summer. The farm will either have to make up for the loss with additional plantings next year or have fewer trees when this year's crop is ready for harvest in six to eight years.
The investment alone is enough to scare off many people interested in becoming growers, Perdulla said.
Once trees are planted, they can't be sold for at least six years, and in the meantime a grower has to pay for equipment to mow, fertilize and prune.
The investment and labor have been paying off for Perdulla and her husband, Frank.
They planted trees in 1983 and began selling them in 1990. Things have gone so well that he's left his job at Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. and she has left her job at Ohio Edison.
She said the biggest challenge for growers is to make the experience of buying a real tree so good that it overrides the convenience of having an artificial tree in the attic.
Over the years, her farm has added machines that shake dead needles off the tree and bale the tree. There also are horse-drawn wagon rides on the weekends.
"We've added more value to the product to keep the customers coming back," she said.
shilling@vindy.com