Growers dream of a green Christmas

Lusher, greener trees should make tree farmers' days merry and bright.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Douglas firs and Colorado spruces at E-Mar Acres Tree Farm are looking tall and plush right now, said owner Ron Mancabelli, who wasn't able to market half of his trees last year because of a vicious spring freeze.
"I look for the Christmas trees to be very nice this year," said Mancabelli, 62, of Saltsburg, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Around the Mid-Atlantic, Christmas tree farmers say above average spring and summer rainfall -- combined with the recent cold snap needed to put trees into dormancy -- should produce a more vibrant crop this holiday season compared with recent seasons, when an uncooperative Mother Nature threw down droughts and freezes.
On the upswing
Farmers in Pennsylvania, as well as those in Virginia and North Carolina, say they expect this year's trees to be greener and to have needles that will stay on the branch longer. They say fewer seedlings died, more buds broke out and some species grew twice their normal growth rate.
As if that wasn't enough good news, trees that had been damaged by frost have since mended their wounds.
"You look at last year and then you look at this year and say, 'Hey, they're pretty good,'" said Jim Kriston, owner of Musser Forests wholesaler in Indiana, Pa.
Although Christmas trees are grown in all states, Oregon, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Washington and Wisconsin are the nation's top Christmas tree producing states in the $441.6 million industry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1997 agriculture statistics, the most recent available.
The National Christmas Tree Association, which represents 5,100 industry professionals, cautions that many factors from soil to disease contribute to the health of trees. The association said that, in general, weather patterns in the summer won't affect trees that go into harvest this year.
But Rusty Barr, one of the owners of Barr Evergreens in Crumpler, N.C., said that after several years of poor growth and with production down as much as 15 percent last year, the 300-acre Christmas tree wholesale outfit hopes for production just 2 to 5 percent below normal this year.
Some trees grew upward of 2 feet, when they normally gain just 1 foot, he said.
"They look the best they have in the past four or five years," Barr said. "They did grow better this season. Some of those smaller buds that might not break broke and made the trees fuller. And the color is better."
Bad last year
Sue Bostic, owner of 100,000-tree farm Joe's Trees in Craig County, Va., said she lost all 6,000 seedlings during the May 2002 freeze and had to cut down 1,000 Douglas firs. Others that were damaged and discolored had to be trimmed, while others didn't grow.
"A 6-foot stayed a 6-foot when they could have been 7 this year," said Bostic, president of the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association.
George Perry, a horticulturist with Penn State Extension Cooperative, said Christmas tree farmers in Schuylkill County, Pa., lost 60 to 80 percent of Fraser fir seedlings last year because of stress from freezing weather. With good moisture throughout the summer, only about 5 percent of seedlings were lost this year, Perry said.
Buds typically break in May and new growth occurs throughout the summer, said Rick Bates, assistant professor of ornamental horticulture at Penn State University. By September, shoots on evergreens stop growing and trees head into dormancy as the weather gets colder, he said.
Abundant rain
Because of abundant rains this summer, many trees damaged by the 2002 freeze have grown back.
"The nice thing about this year is that most all of those trees have recovered pretty well," Bates said.
Mancabelli, who has about 35,000 trees on 35 acres, said the rain caused minor nuisances, such as extra grass and weed growth and made it more difficult to spray pesticides. Mancabelli said he had to mow his property twice as often this year.
Still, Christmas tree farmers aren't complaining. "We've been blessed even though it's caused us to mow more," Bostic said.
XVisit the National Christmas Tree Association at www.realchristmastrees.org/members.html on the Web.