How Long Does it Take to Grow Christmas Trees? In Canada, Christmas tree farms across the country are felling their Christmas trees. The question is what happens to them afterwards and within what timeframe.
It was therefore a great pleasure to visit Matthew to find out what it means to ensure that everyone who comes to the farm can take their Christmas tree home. To my surprise, planting a tree and then felling it a few years later is not so easy. In fact, it takes years to find any income or work on a Christmas tree farm.
Christmas Tree Farm been in operation?
Matthew started planting trees in 2003 and opened Puddleford Christmas Tree Farm in 2009, which he opened in 2011. It took 6 years for the trees to be large enough to be sold, and another 5 years to start planting.
Do people come to Puddleford Tree farm?
Puddleford Christmas Tree Farm has opened its farm to the public for the first time since the first Christmas tree was felled. Visitors will also have the opportunity to sit around the fire, drink hot chocolate and cider, roast marshmallows and spend a nice afternoon in nature.
Tree farm takes six years before you get paid
Christmas tree farming is well suited for a full-time job and is suitable for the soil conditions on the farm. In the end, it is more coincidence than intent, and the families forget to discuss what they want to do with it.
The tree is only two metres high and looks as if it is far from being a Christmas tree, but it is certainly not the beginning. How old is the tree and how long will it last before it becomes a huge commitment?
It grew for three years in a planting bed and was then transplanted into the field for two years before being planted here. The two-metre high tree was transplanted last spring and is already 5 years old, but it is too young to be a Christmas tree and too old to grow.
Look after them?
The tree must be cut regularly and the lower branches cut in a so-called base cut, which is cut back to the tree base in the first years of its life.
Trimming the tree also helps to fight weeds by spraying herbicides on it. So you can easily get it out of the sprayer and someone can come to it after seeing that you have felled it. This is done to create a balanced tree so that it is not overgrown by weeds and other pests.
Now why do you spray? Do you also fertilize the trees?
If you want to spray a number of trees with herbicides to rid them of weeds, you need to use drip irrigation. If you don’t remove the weeds in this row, mice live and chew through the irrigation pipes under the trees.
The longer you fertilize your Christmas trees every year, the bigger the trees grow and the longer they last.
How old are the trees?
I am nine years old and do some basic shaping to maintain the traditional triangular profile, but not much more than that.
To get the right shape for the Christmas tree, you must always try to remove the branches from the tree, but also make sure that they are on top of the trees so that they have a clear tip. If you do not, your tree gets a square tip and starts without branches, and if you do, it gets square tips.
What do you use to shape the trees? How do you shape the trees?
Using a scissors knife, create a conical shape for the tree (watch out for a 2-foot butter knife, it must be very sharp).
Cut the knife through the tip of the new growth and use a downward movement, grind it regularly to keep it that way.
Then the crown of the tree is cut back with pruning shears, which determines the classic conical shape of a tree. When a branch competes with the main branch, it should be cut back to its original position. Plant a striking branch on the right side of your tree, in the middle of its trunk, and then on the left. Cut this branch back into the trunk with a pruning shear, then the other side with another pruning shear.
You want to create the leading edge of the trunk and the middle of the trunk, while maintaining the classic Christmas tree shape.
The last shearing takes place during the harvest next autumn, which is probably the most important. Then the tree is ready to be the perfect tree that everyone wants to take home, so be ready to put it up so it is ready for the next harvest.
Why people want a real tree?
When people come to Puddleford Christmas Tree Farm they have a lot of fun and real trees seem to make them feel like their home feels like Christmas. You can smell it in the air when you go to get a fresh tree with your family, and people like it too.
Families can spend as much time around the tree as they want, enjoying hot chocolate and cider while sitting around the campfire, or they can spend as little or as many hours around it as they want – it’s an experience for everyone.
What’s the best way to care for a Christmas tree when you get it home?
After pruning, the tree begins to lock itself in to keep moisture away and to seal the moisture in the trunk. If you have to wait a week, cut it off before you set off, lay it on the trunk and wait.
When the tree runs out of water, it seals itself in the ground, loses its ability to absorb water and begins to deteriorate quickly. Second, simply pour fresh water into the stand, nothing to nothing, and never let it run out. If you give it a fresh cut, open the pores and take the water it needs.
