Does anyone know if Christmas tree farms are profitable. I hear that competition is cut-throat. Any suggestions?

-- Jim (jcchunter@email.msn.com), February 07, 2001

Answers

Start small and try it. Look at prices and see if you can make a niche. Rely on your homesteader out of box perspective.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), February 07, 2001.

I have thought about it but I took a drive through SOuthern INdiana and saw too many over grown ex-tree farms and I got scared off Grant

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), February 07, 2001.

I don't know what variety of trees grow best in your area, but here we grow balsam fir mostly. I personally believe that the better dollar for smaller growers is in selling "tips" to wreath makers and florists. You can reharvest off the same trees too if managed well.

-- Terri in NS (terri@tallships.ca), February 08, 2001.

Round about here (within 2 hours of Chicago) the cut-your-own seem to do a booming business. Trees sell for $25 to $60. The most popular have a hay ride and a shaker that wraps the tree in some kind of netting and they have a warming house with hot coffe and either hot cider or hot chocolate. But it takes a long time to get a field of trees big enough, plus all summer trimming them into shape and one heck of a lot of work from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Having a website helps (do a search to look at your competition). I'd say the place we went to must have sold 200 trees (or more) the Saturday we were out there - at $25/tree, well, you figure it out.

-- Deborah (ActuaryMom@hotmail.com), February 08, 2001.

I don't personally know much about trees, but I love white pines & wanted to buy several, the greenhouses & nurseries said they wouldn't carry them right now because a bug was in the area killing all the white pines, so it did make me think that if someone were to start a farm they would want different kinds, otherwise a bug could come along & wipe you out. Just a thought, certainly not a professional one:-)

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), February 09, 2001.

Jim, I have been thinking of growing Christmas trees too. I started a few Colo. blue spruce last year and swapped some seeds for Norwegain spruce this winter. Figureing the sq.ft times what they will be worth in X number of years it seems like a good way to go. I want to start selling them early when 2 to 3 ft. tall for landscaping. I think the best return on my investment is just getting them tall enough to sell. which gets back to dollars per sq ft. In my case I have the land, the seeds cost almost nothing and I would be happy to have the trees if it turns out they do not sell well. Hammer

-- Hammer (K3@alltel.net), February 13, 2001.

Hammer, I think that attitude in an ever changing tree market is a good one. Happy to Have them if They Don't Sell. There sure are a lot of pretty fields of trees around here that didn't sell. Cut your own doesn't mean the same thing now that it used to. Got to have a lot of fancy shaking equipment and then wrap it etc. Not just a labor intensive project, but a capital investment project.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 13, 2001.