WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Santa Claus should be placing gifts under a lot of healthy-looking Christmas trees in Indiana. Credit the cool, wet conditions this year for trees looking so lush and full of color throughout the state.
That’s according to Dan Cassens, a professor of wood products at Purdue University who also happens to own a 20-acre Christmas tree farm in West Lafayette. There might be isolated areas of the state where growing conditions weren’t as favorable but, in general, he said the weather has lent itself to taking home a perfect Christmas tree. "By and large, it was all good," said Cassens.
He explained the trees this year have a deep green color with lots of growth from a season of plentiful moisture and below-average temperatures. The added growth helps fill in any bare spots a tree might have and gives branches the softness needed for optimal shearing to create the ideal shape before harvesting.
Tree farmers, like corn and soybean growers, are often faced with bugs and disease and those problems have crept up this year in some areas – but not to a great extent at least in most areas of the state thanks to Mother Nature in 2014 being so kind, he said.
Bugs and disease were a much bigger problem in 2012, when some trees died and the quality was negatively impacted by severe drought that made the crop more susceptible to invaders.
Nowadays, the tree crop is more dependent on weather because in response to customer demand the past two decades or so, growers are planting higher numbers of Frazier and other species of fir trees, which need higher quality soil in areas that drain well. As a result, more hands-on care is required in areas such as testing soils for proper nutrient and pH levels and other tasks like applying pesticides and weed control.
In comparison, Cassens said the hardier yet still popular Scotch and White pines do well in less suitable ground and better withstand flooding.
"Now rather than just sticking trees into the ground and hoping we get something out of it, it’s a science-based industry. You’re into some real farming," he noted.
The precipitation across Indiana was enough to cause delays in planting and the harvest by keeping farmers out of wet fields, but Cassens does not believe the rain was too much for the Hoosier tree crop. "We had good rainfall, but I don’t think it was real excessive or real fast at any particular time points."
Hensler Nursery at Hamlet in the northern part of the state also reported trees of high quality this year. "We had what you would call the perfect growing season," said Joe Hensler, whose father, John, owns the property that contains 300 acres of trees.
He said helping with the quality this year was plenty of rainfall in August, the most critical time of year for trees to receive ample water heading into the dormant winter season.
Hensler Nursery last week provided a nine-foot-tall Frazier fir to Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann and nearly a dozen similar-sized trees around the rotunda at the Statehouse in Indianapolis.
"We’re proud to be able to do that for our officials down there," said Hensler.
Cassens said there are Christmas tree farms across Indiana, but the state is not a large producer.
In fact, he said most of the firs that wind up in the homes of Hoosiers are actually shipped in from major growers such as in Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.
According to figures provided by the National Christmas Tree Assoc., Indiana ranked 17th in 2012 with nearly 90,000 Christmas trees harvested that year. Oregon was first with more than 6 million harvested trees, followed by North Carolina, which had more than 4 million, and Michigan with 1.7 million harvested trees.
