Growers trimming their holiday trees

Even though the Christmas season seems ages away, that doesn’t mean Alvin Kittle can rest until December.

Retired after 40 years at U.S. Pipe and Foundry, Mr. Kittle supplements his pension with thousands of evergreens he grows at Kittle Christmas Tree Farm in Ringgold, Ga. Christmas isn’t for another 145 days, so most people probably aren’t thinking about their trees.

In the 95-degree heat, though, tree farmers already are trimming for the holidays.

“If you don’t keep them trimmed, they won’t fill out right,” Mr. Kittle said.

The trimming starts as early as May, he said, with a second touch-up usually around August. Without trimming or shearing, the tree doesn’t take its festive cone shape.

Along with ensuring his 9,000 or so trees fill out, Mr. Kittle must trim the bottom 12 inches of limbs for easy carrying, for setting up in a base and to give space for the presents, he said.

Anna Savage and her husband Richard, both retired teachers, run the 10-acre Thousand Pines Christmas Tree Farm on Thomas Twin Oaks Road in Baxter, Tenn. These days, the Savages’ grandchildren are helping them keep the trees clean, mowing the fields and shearing the trees.

“You work on Christmas trees from January until December,” Mrs. Savage said. “It gets us out instead of staying in the rocking chair.”

Part of a billion-dollar-per-year industry, 28.6 million real Christmas trees were sold in the United States in 2006, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. In Tennessee, association Assistant Director Becky Rasmussen said the market is dominated by choose-and-harvest farms — farms like the Savages’ and the Kittles’ — rather than major retailers of pre-cut trees.

Christmas tree farms are not exactly a dime a dozen in the Chattanooga area, but there are a number in North Georgia and in the McMinnville, Tenn., area, although Ms. Savage said she has some Chattanoogan customers. Hamilton County tree farmers said Chattanoogans can look to North Georgia or North Carolina for Christmas trees.

For tree farmers to get that oh-so-important cone shape, it’s all about shearing until you reach a symmetry on all sides, and that the ideal tree is cut so the tree’s base is two-thirds as wide as its height, according to a report from Michigan State University’s forestry extension program.

If you shear at the right time of year — by July 15 for Ms. Savage — the tree grows less “spindly.” The Savages use a two-foot-long shearing knife, walking around the tree and aiming for consistency year-to-year.

“It takes about two minutes per tree, and if you have 10 acres of trees it’ll take almost a month to get them all sheared,” she said.

Finally, growers spray the trees to get rid of bugs that Mr. Kittle said will otherwise go dormant, then wake up and stretch their legs in the warmth of somebody’s home. To cut costs and limit the damage to the environment, he said, his pesticide is a home-brewed mix of Listerine and dishwashing soap.

By the Friday after Thanksgiving, Ms. Savage said, the customers arrive, looking for just the right tree.

Despite a gloomy economic forecast, the growers are optimistic about sales this year.

Customers look for a dark-green tree, on average about 6 or 7 feet tall, the growers said. Mr. Kittle said he sells about 700 trees per year for $35 each, and Ms. Savage said the family farm can sell as many as 800 trees for $40 each, thanks to a loyal customer base. Fuel and fertilizer costs are rising, but the tree farm still is profitable, she said.

Mr. Kittle grows eight varieties of trees, including many of the cypress variety, which are reliable growers.

“All kinds of cypress do well here,” he said. “They just take to the weather real good.”

White pine is a Tennessee native that becomes “really full,” and it is Thousand Pines Farm’s most popular tree, Ms. Savage said.