About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2018)
Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com She (Times gainesvilletimes.com Friday, December 7, 2018 Farmers feel recession’s deep roots 2008 strikes back: The sad reason your Christmas tree selection was skimpy this year BY LAYNE SALIBA lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com Like your annoying uncle on Christmas, the 2008 financial crisis just won’t go away. If the selection of trees at your favorite Christmas tree spot seem a little skimpy this year, it’s a prob lem a decade in the making — the housing collapse that spurred the late-2000s crisis had lasting conse quences for the entire nation. Including, sadly, Christmas trees. “I tried to get a few more Fraser firs, just because we sold out last year around Dec. 11, which is too early,” said Kathy Cooper, who runs Cooper’s Tree Farm with her husband. “And this year, I may not have enough to get through this weekend, which would be another week earlier.” Farmers are running out of trees early this year because the 2008 cri sis left them with a budget crunch that meant they couldn’t afford to buy the saplings needed to replant trees at their farms. “It’s pretty interesting because every industry is different,” said Andy Kinsey, co-owner of Kinsey Family Farm, in a November inter view with the Times. “But when the economy was bad, of course all businesses had to scale back. For tree growers, it’s a very expensive business. You need to make a ton of money all the time so you can rein vest in more trees. So, they couldn’t afford to replant.” That struggle is still being felt today as Christmas tree farms in the area and across the country are having trouble supplying trees for their visitors during the holiday season. Fraser firs, many of which come to the area from North Carolina, are the biggest struggle for Christ mas tree farms to deal with. Kin sey said they’re the most popular tree by far, and it’s been difficult to keep enough in stock because of the shortage. He said many growers, like the ones he uses out of North Carolina and Virginia, don’t even want him telling people where he gets his trees because they’re already hav ing to turn people away as it is. “People call us every day and ask where we get our trees,” Kin sey said. “I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no. I want to stay in good favor,”’ With the financial crisis a decade past, here’s why it’s rearing its ugly head again: Fraser firs grow about a foot each year. Since the finan cial crisis happened 10 years ago, the limited crop that was planted during that time is ready to be har vested and distributed to different farms around the country. Making matters worse, the trees planted in 2008 are now between 8 and 10 feet tall — the most in- demand tree size in the country. “It’s just that lag in the economy. (It) was bad at that time, and now the product that was planted then is ready to sell,” Kinsey said. Since many farms didn’t have the means to plant like normal, those repercussions are showing today. “Some of them didn’t replant at all and just sold out — their crop sold out — and then they closed,” Kinsey said. “Some of them replanted half the crop because Dalton Phillips, an employee at Cooper’s Tree Farm, loads up a tree for a customer on Thursday, Dec. 6. Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times that’s all they could afford.” Cooper said if she had known this was going to happen, she would have started planting more trees at her own farm so they wouldn’t have to rely as heavily on their supplier in Cashiers, North Carolina. “The gentleman that I buy my Frasers from, we’ve probably got ten from him for 20 years, so he’s a good, stable farmer,” Cooper said. “But if he runs short, he pulls from some of his other farmers around him or relatives that grow trees. And this year, I think there were five or six guys that have gone out of business up there that he counts on. So it’s shrinking as far as the farm ers and providers up there.” She said the shortage is so bad that her supplier couldn’t even sell her any low-quality trees. “A lot of times they’ll sell you wreath trees, which are trees that are not very good, so you can cut them up and make your wreaths out of them,” Cooper said. “He didn’t even have those.” Kinsey Family Farm typically sells Noble, Nordmann and Doug las firs — all of which are West Coast trees — along with Fraser and Concolor firs. Because of the shortage, though, he wasn’t able to get anything from the West Coast this year. “I flew to Oregon for the first time, walked around, begged, pleaded and said, ‘I’ll pay you cash right now,”’ Kinsey said. He said they told him “nothing was going east of the Rockies. ” It’s all about loyalty and is simply part of the business, Kinsey said. Growers out west are making sure the locals who have been dealing with them for decades have what they need first. Growers on the East Coast are doing the same, all because of something that hap pened a decade ago. “You can ask any of the growers and they’ll tell you they couldn’t afford to replant,” Kinsey said. Above: Customers purchase trees for Christmas at Cooper’s Tree Farm on Thursday, Dec. 6. Left: Trees stand in the ground at Cooper’s Tree Farm. Customers have the option of choosing a pre-cut tree or cutting their own. Finding the perfect tree for your Christmas season If you are a little behind on get ting your Christmas tree up this year, don’t fret, I just bought mine today and I plan to put Charlie Brown to shame. Some folks love their artificial trees, but I just can’t do it. Real trees for this man of agriculture. This weekend I will have a tree decorated with many years of sen timental ornaments. My 10-year- old is hoping that it has plenty of room underneath it for Santa to deposit his bounty. Ninety-eight percent of all Christmas trees are grown on farms, while only 2 percent are cut from the wild. It’s fun to get out and find a wild, native tree, but in our area we are limited to which trees we can find in the woods. The Eastern Red Cedar is our most common native Christmas tree and makes for great decor, but handling it can get you itching. Farm-raised Christmas trees CAMPBELL VAUGHN ecvaughn@uga.edu are generally grown in cooler climates. The bulk of trees we buy off lots come from North Carolina. The most commonly purchased Christmas tree in our area is the Fraser fir. From seedling to har vest, a Fraser fir takes 6-8 years to head to market. Average cost for the farmer from planting to harvest is about $9,000 to $13,000 per acre. The average price of a Christmas tree is $46. I love the way a Fraser Fir smells. When I was single and alone living in the country, I loved the smell so much I left my tree up way past the unlucky Jan. 1 cutoff to undecorate. Almost all trees require shear ing to attain the Christmas tree shape. At six to seven feet, trees are ready for harvest. I have spent a day shearing trees and it is hard work. It’a a lot like all-day training to be a samurai warrior with lots of blisters. Leyland Cypress is one of the most popular trees grown in the South and is the No. 1 Christmas tree grown in Georgia. Our state grows about 1,400 acres of Christ mas trees at a value of just over $9 million. Virginia pine is also a sta ple for the Christmas tree industry in the South since its inception. The branches are stout and woody making it suitable for ornament hanging. Another plant growing in popu larity for the Yuletide season is the Arizona blue cypress. This desert cypress is a steeple-shaped tree with a pale-green to gray- green color that can almost have a silver color at times. The Arizona blue cypress also has a pleasing aroma that some describe as a cross between lemon and mint. This plant would also be a good plant to buy in a nursery pot and plant it in the yard after the Christmas season is over. Reach ing 20-30 feet in height, it is a relatively fast grower and is great for a specimen tree or to use as a screening plant. Another good Christmas tree that can be bought live in a con tainer or ball and burlap and used later in the landscape is a Foster’s holly. The red berries make for great colorful natural decoration. One holiday years back, my family used one of these Foster’s hollies as our Christmas focal feature, and I planted it in the yard after the ornaments made it back into the boxes. It has made a great evergreen in the landscape to this day. A couple of other nontraditional trees we used over the years to hang our decorations were a potted Meyer lemon and a Norfolk Island pine. Both of these additions were met with Christmas cheer. Remember that Christmas trees drink a lot of water, so it is important to keep them hydrated thoroughly when they reach your home. In the first week, a Christmas tree in your home will consume as much as a quart of water per day. Try and keep the tree away from heating vents when you place them in your home. The warm, dry air will have your green ery wilted and shedding before the turtle doves and French hens find a good nesting spot. But the best present is enjoying the family time while finding the perfect tree for your Christmas season. Campbell Vaughn is UGA Extension- Agriculture and Natural Resource Agent in Richmond County. He can be reached at ecvaughn@uga.edu.
