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Perfect Christmas trees don't happen naturally
Perfect Christmas trees don't happen naturally
Labor - OSU forestry experts are experimenting with a hormone technique that could be revolutionize the industry
Thursday, August 03, 2006
GWENDA RICHARDS OSHIRO
The Oregonian
BEAVERCREEK -- So you think that noble fir you decorate every Christmas comes by that perfect shape naturally?
Think again.
Hours and hours of labor go into making sure that tree -- beloved for finely spaced branches that show off delicate ornaments -- has that gorgeous form.
Now, forestry experts with Oregon State University Extension Service are experimenting with a growth hormone that they think might save Christmas tree growers considerable time and expense in one aspect of grooming their nobles to perfection.
"If this works, it'll be the biggest revolution in the culturing of Christmas trees since we started putting knives to trees," said Mike Bondi, OSU's forestry expert in Clackamas County.
He forecasts that the technique could save the 1,000 Christmas tree growers in Oregon -- including the 300 in Clackamas County -- about 50 cents a tree, or $2.5 million to $3 million a year.
On test plots at three Clackamas County Christmas tree farms, Bondi is applying ethyl 1-napthaleneacetate, a derivative of the growth hormone found in trees, to tree tops -- also called the trees' terminal leader. Rick Fletcher, forestry extension agent in Linn and Benton counties, has three more test plots, and Chal Landgren, his counterpart in Washington and Columbia counties, has two more.
Wearing portable backpack sprayers that funnel the hormone into a wand-like applicator fitted with two paint-roller-like applicators, Bondi and his peers walk up and down the rows of trees, rolling on the hormone in a quick up-and-down application.
They hope the hormone will replace the time-consuming three-step process that Christmas tree farmers currently use to regulate the growth.
Every year, the tree's top grows, optimally, 12 to 14 inches. But starting in the tree's third year, growth can be more vigorous, sometimes as much as 18 inches to 24 inches a year.
If nothing is done to stem that growth, the tree will be spindly and out of proportion when it is cut in its seventh, eighth or ninth year, Bondi said. The question becomes, he said, "How do you regulate that growth for height and vigor and fill and density so customers like the look of the tree?"
Now, growers take these steps to regulate the tree's growth:
In the summer or fall, they trim back the top of the tree to the bud, where the branches shoot out. In mid-summer the following year, they put one of the branches in a "splint" so that it bends upward. Finally, in winter or spring, they go back a third time to remove the splint from the branch that has been trained to become the sturdy new top of the tree.
This is labor intensive, Bondi said, especially when you consider that on Clackamas County farms alone, there are about 10 million to 12 million Christmas trees. Of that, about 2.5 million, including 1.25 million nobles, are harvested each year.
Bondi got the idea to use the tree's natural growth hormones from Danish tree farmers who were applying it to Nordmann firs, similar to nobles. The precise product Danish farmers use is unavailable in the United States, so Bondi turned to the over-the-counter "Sucker-Stopper RTU," used in the U.S. nursery industry and by homeowners to control sucker growth on ornamental trees.
In the first year of the experiment, Bondi and his colleagues compared the effectiveness of the hormone with the more mechanical "nipping" of tree tops. They determined the hormone held the best promise.
This year they are applying different doses of the hormone on about 2,500 trees, including 1,000 in Beavercreek, Estacada and Marquam. Early this month, Bondi and his colleagues will measure the trees and report the results at the National Christmas Tree Association biennial meeting in Portland on Aug. 16-19.
While Bondi thinks they may need one more year of testing to pin down the correct dosage, some farmers are eager to try out the new process.
Jim Schaefer, who grows noble, Nordmann and Douglas fir on 2,200 acres of his Holiday Specialtrees farm in the Molalla area, plans to use the hormone next season.
"Right now I have 50 guys out putting sticks in tops of trees and cutting leaders," said Schaefer, who has been growing Christmas trees with his brother, Rick, since 1975. His farm is among the three providing trees for Bondi's experiment.
"Doing top work comes on at the same time that we could be doing other work on the Christmas trees . . . there's a conflict of timing."
Applying the growth hormone could be done a lot earlier so that he would not have to spread his workers out over two tasks, he said.
Stan Low, owner of Highland Farm of Oregon, estimates he could save $15,000 to $20,000 a year on his 525-acre Beavercreek-based operation if the growth hormone proves successful at controlling leader growth.
But while he is letting Bondi use some of his noble firs for the testing, Low is reluctant to switch from the manual process until the researchers prove that the hormone works and at what dosage.
But if they succeed, he acknowledges, "it will be a pretty big deal for us."
"We have a couple problems facing our industry, the most important is labor," Low said. "Anything that offers some opportunity to save money and labor costs is welcome." The Oregonian's South Bureau: 503-294-5920; south@news.oregonian.com %%endby%%
©2006 The Oregonian
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