Wouldn't it be fun to raise a few Christmas trees? Perhaps your children would like to learn new things as they work alongside you?In the timeline of Christmas tree production, trimming takes place from mid-July to mid-August. The new growth has hardened off and there's enough time for additional branch extension before the holidays, so the tree will appear soft and lush by harvest time.
Christmas trees
People might guess that trimming simply means removing anything that doesn't "look like a Christmas tree," but there's an art to it; the best Christmas trees have a 66 to 70 percent taper. On my farm, I made a "tree template" to manage how my trees will look.
But work with any particular tree begins years before you start cutting.
I plant "three-twos," trees that have grown for three years in a seed bed and two years in a transplant bed. I won't trim until year two after I have transferred them to my field (year seven in the tree's life); trees at this stage are 18 to 24 inches tall.
To transplant a tree from its bed, I place the small plant (roughly 12 inches tall) in a bucket of water while I prepare a new hole. As I move the tree from the water into the ground, I trim off any long or hanging roots, placing the remaining tendrils so they are not bunched up. I also do a light dressing of fertilizer in a circle around the tree to help it grow healthier.
After the tree takes hold, I trim it every year during summer, cutting off unsightly branches and making sure the terminal leader, tree topping, is no more than 12 to16 inches long at any time.
When you allow the leader to become too elongated, then you will have "goose necks" or large spaces between the branches (whorls) that are unsightly.
As the tree matures, if the leader is 12 inches tall, then the whorls just below should be eight inches, helping start a proper taper. If these branches are at more than a 45-degree angle upward, forming a branch hook, then one or more might form an additional leader - and that is not desirable. By removing these branches, I am coaxing the tree to grow only one arrow-like branch at the top to hold the crowning ornament for a successful Christmas-tree look.
I follow the same procedure each year, using clippers or other hand tools to form the tree to a desired shape. My advice when learning how to shape a tree is to take your time and practice; you will become more comfortable with the taper percentages the more you do it, especially if you create a template.
Typically, a tree will grow a foot a year, and trees on my farm grow six years or more before they're cut and sold.
The most wonderful part of working with the trees each season is that I feel like I am nurturing a family tradition, a winter activity for everyone to enjoy.
For more information on tree trimming, please contact me at dave@stowerealty.com, or visit the NH-VT Christmas Tree Association site, nh-vtchristmastree.org, for helpful advice and other interesting tree tools.
This article was also published in the Stowe Reporter.