By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent STAMPING GROUND, Ky. — Owen Robinson is known by many names. He is a farmer, a businessman, a Purdue University graduate, a retired army lieutenant colonel, a retired state district forester, a forestry consultant, a father and a husband. And, he speaks fondly of each.
In the summer, he is also affectionately known as the Tomato Man – and rightfully so. He raises about 900 tomato plants on his 40-acre farm in Scott County. That is a far cry from the 60 acres he raised for a nearby cannery while living in Indiana.
The 900 plants are more profitable though, he said. The plants will produce about 27,000 pounds if each plant nets about 30 pounds’ worth, and if anyone can get maximum performance out of a plant, it’s Robinson. He learned much about growing things as a graduate forester at Purdue.
But, this time of year, his passion turns to Christmas trees. He has about 8,000 not far from where the tomatoes are planted, which are close to the apple and pear trees … which stand alongside his tobacco patches, which are separated by his stand of holly trees, which stand next to his blackberry plants.
“Diversification” would be the word used today to describe how Robinson operates his farm. He describes it another way.
“When we were growing up on the farm, Pop sold something different every month to get money,” he said. “He sold apples, he sold hogs and sheep. Whatever it was that was coming in – but he sold something every month.”
Perhaps those days helped Robinson become diversified in his adult life and his farming efforts, but when it comes to his trees, he grows mostly one kind: Scotch Pines. They are the prettiest and hardiest, he said. Just how many he sells each year is a secret, he said with a laugh. “It’s safe to say I sell a bunch.”
Robinson’s key to making his trees the beauties they are, however, is not a secret: It has to do with a lot of work. He said pruning is important in getting the right shape.
“We start trimming these in June and July, and August and September. I think we’re always pruning them,” he said.
But the work pays off, sometimes too well. Robinson told the story of a man who came to the tree farm and wanted one of his tallest trees, a 16-footer. He said he figured the man had a tall enough ceiling, so he helped him load it and away he went.
The man’s wife returned later with an unsettling story about how the tree was too tall to fit into her living room. Robinson figured the man had ruined the tree by trimming it down. What actually happened was the man thought the tree was too pretty to cut – so, he cut a hole in the ceiling to make it fit.
While he doesn’t recommend that for everyone, Robinson does have a special formula to help keep a tree beautiful long after it leaves the farm.
“You use three tablespoons of bleach, a cup of Karo syrup and a gallon of water. When you cut a tree off, bacteria starts to filling up the pores so it can’t take up water. The bleach kills the bacteria. The syrup, which is nothing but a plant sugar, will fill the needles up and that tree will stay just as fresh as anything,” he said.
He also said to make sure the tree has plenty of water at night. A tree is naturally dormant this time of year, until taken into a 70-degree house, when it becomes active again. Most trees dry out because people don’t give them ample water.
Real Christmas trees may seem like a luxury this year with the bad economy affecting everybody, but Robinson doesn’t seem to be bothered too much by it. They’ll be here next year, he said of the trees.
“Now, if I cut down a lot of these to sell, then I would have to do something with them or lose them,” he explained.
He sells every tree he has for the same price: $35, no matter the size. “Some folks will come in and want a small tree, and I tell them they can get a bigger one for the same price, but they may want to put it on a table or something like that,” he said.
Robinson keeps the business simple and doesn’t waste anything, either. He even uses stray cedar that grows in the pine trees to make decorations, such as adding them to wreaths.
His farm is just a mile or so from the main part of town, about which he is just as passionate; he owns several commercial properties, including an antique store. It is a great place to live, he said, as he showed off his decorations of holly branches at city hall. He likes to show off the new and the old around Stamping Ground, from the school to the new park.
“Successful” could be another word to illustrate Robinson, and has come through hard work – although getting married was the hardest thing he ever did, he joked. That was 36 years ago. His children have inherited the success trait as well, with two sons who are engineers and a daughter who is a teacher.
Owen Robinson looks at his successes with a simple philosophy: “If you understand how one plant lives, you’ll learn how all the rest of them live. There’s a little bit of difference with this and a little bit of difference with that, but they’re all the same.”
To find the Robinson Christmas Tree Farm and others in the area, visit the Kentucky Christmas Tree Growers Assoc. website at www.kychristmastreefarms.com |
