Starting a Tree Farm
Many different aspects must be taken into account when staring a tree farm. The cost that it will take to buy the neccesary equipment, supplies and trees. The land that is needed to grow the tree on and the cost of land. You must also plan and develop a site that is going to be easily accessable by truck or tractor. below I have provided a general idea of how this can be done.
The Land
The land in recent years has become one of the most important aspects to the christmas tree industry. In the past farms were placed in areas refered to as wastelands. This is no longer the truth. A quality tree needs quality land to grow on. The soil should not be compacted and it should have a good amount of topsoil on it. Lands that have level to gently rolling terrain are most desirable for Christmas tree farming. The more slope that you have, the more erosion and work that will be needed to get to the trees. You must remember that mowing and weed control will have to be done on theses farms. The land should be free from large rocks, trees and other obstacles that might prevent ideal growing conditions. The access and security of the land are two issues that must be taken into account when buying and running a tree farm. There are people that will steal Christmas trees.
The Plan
A thorough and careful plan is essential for proper maintainence and establishment of a tree farm. This is neccessary for a person just getting into the tree production or for an experienced tree producer. You must be able to organize the area easily.
The Roads
Roads are very important to the smooth running of a Christmas tree farm. They must be wide enough to take equipment down, but not so wide that they take up growing space. A map of the land is neccessary to produce roads that will not be in low wet areas. Maps can be found in topography books. Roads should access a majority of the land that is being planted. This will help to get trees back to the sale place quickly and without much work.
Site Deterioratrion
Of the species that might be grown for Christmas trees in a given area, some may be much more exacting in their moisture and fertility requirements than others. For example, Scotch pine has relatively low requirements for both moisture and nutrients and, consequently, can be grown successfully on a variety of sites having a wide range of conditions. In contrast, many true firs, spruces and Douglas-fir are more demanding and do well only on sites that are at least relatively moist and/or fertile.Knowledge of characteristics and productive potential of individual planting sites, added to an understanding of species requirements, helps reduce some of the uncertainties of Christmas tree production. It is an area, however, that is badly neglected by many growers. All too often lands are planted without regard to site characteristics or species requirements. Consequently, survival and growth in some plantations can be unnecessarily poor, resulting in reduced tree quality, longer rotations and greatly increased costs.
Site quality determination can be done in a number of ways. Thorough evaluation of planting sites, either by the grower or by professional outside help, can provide the necessary information. Special emphasis should be placed on factors that affect moisture availability. These include soil texture, depth and drainage class, topographic slope position and aspect and slope steepness. Where topography is diverse, integration of all these factors into an accurate and meaningful estimate of available soil moisture can be difficult. Tables 1 and 2 have been prepared to aid in integration of these factors. Table 1 is designed to indicate the relative "moisture regime" or moisture supplying capacity of different topographic-soil combinations. (information taken from http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/b670/b670_9.html)
