Christmas cheer is more than just a seasonal feeling for some Delawareans. They’re the ones running the First State’s 30 Christmas tree farms. They don’t mind the year-round work, but they’re also facing environmental problems – the solution to which may come from Asia. Delaware Public Media's James Dawson has more.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/tree-feature.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's James Dawson chcks in with Christmas tree farmers in the First State.]
Stepping on to Coleman’s Christmas Tree Farm is like walking into a northern US forest – even though you’re only a couple miles from the mouth of the Delaware Bay.
Delaware’s oldest Christmas tree farm boasts hundreds of acres of fir and spruce trees at all stages of growth.
Founded in 1932 by William and Elizabeth Coleman, the 330-acre farm was a dairy until 1951. The two started planting the trees a few years later and in 1975, Jack Coleman dedicated himself solely to the crop.
He says by the mid 1980s, the entire farm was only growing Christmas trees and pumpkins.
“It’s nice to see something that you’ve planted, I mean you plant a tree – this tree is nine foot tall – you planted this and it was about the size of a pencil around and about a foot or so tall and in eight years, it turns into that," said Coleman.
Jack Coleman still runs the place with his wife Debby with help from friends and family.
It’s a chilly December morning walking around the farm and it doesn’t take long for him to point out how the business has changed over the past few decades.
“It seems like everything’s more complicated. When we first started growing trees, you’d plant them and almost forget about them," he said.
"We would mow them a couple times. Now, you plant them, you have to irrigate them, you have to spray them, you have to keep the weeds down and we mow them several times a year.”
Growing something so central to many families’ holiday season sounds so idyllic – and Coleman says it’s something he takes great pride in.
But recently, disease and destructive fungi have begun to invade as temperatures climb and more rain falls.
Needlecast disease is among the most common problems facing these farmers.
It’s a fungus that takes a while to fully develop and may go unnoticed for months. It latches on to the older growth and thrives in humid environments – like Delaware.
Needles become mottled with yellow or brown spots, depending on the variety of fungus.
Coleman points out what it’s doing to one of his Douglas Firs in front of us.
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“You’ve only got new needles on a tree and when you look at the tree and it looks real branchy looking, like you can see all the branches back in there, it’s because it’s lost all the old needles and the only needles on it’s the new needles. It makes it look, really, kind of bad.”
It’s something that’s affecting the nearly 30 other Christmas tree growers in Delaware and some are taking steps to adapt to the changing climate.
Jim Landis owns a 15-acre farm near Harbison in Sussex County and also heads the Delaware Christmas Tree Growers Association.
He’s experimenting with exotic firs from Turkey and South Korea to see if they’ll tolerate the First State better than more common trees from higher latitudes or altitudes.
“We think that our hot summers will allow these trees to grow very nicely because these trees come from very, very warm places,” said Landis.
He takes me to a smaller patch of trees with budding little evergreens less than a foot high.
They’re sprinkled near the edge of his land, tucked behind more mature Douglas and Canaan Firs.
He says he’s had mixed results so far.
“The Turkish Fir have done really well, but they’ve only been in the ground for a little less than a year. The Nordman Firs we’ve had in the ground for three years. The first year, I’ve lost quite a few of those and the Korean Firs, first year in the ground I lost several of those," said Landis.
"But in subsequent years – we’ve put two more years of plantings in – they’ve done pretty well.”
In fact, since 2010, Landis says he’s lost about 7,000 trees to disease or water damage.
The dirt on his land has a hard clay layer relatively close to the top soil that doesn’t let water pass through very easily.
That can keep the roots soaked in more water than they want, causing damage to the tree itself.
“You can sit here and look right there, there are Douglas Fir trees there that are a little bit bare at the bottom and that’s because of too much water.”
It takes about ten years for a Christmas tree to grow to the size needed for most homes – depending on the variety – so it'll be a while before Landis learns how well they adapt to the Mid-Atlantic climate.
Despite the problems and competition in the marketplace from artificial trees, both he and Coleman say they love what they do.
Families return year after year and Landis sold his entire stock in two weeks this winter.
He says pre-decorated trees sold in stores might be more convenient.
“But they’re not going to give you hot chocolate, they’re not going to take your picture, they’re not going to give you cider, they’re not going to give you cookies," he said.
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"So we do some things that maybe Home Depot and Lowe’s and Food Lion and the other stores cannot do.”
Coleman agrees, saying he doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon when I asked him what it will take for him to stop growing Christmas trees.
"Well, a box, I guess," he says, chuckling with his wife Debby. "They’ll be here after I’m gone. I hope it’ll be a family member that will take it over."
It’ll be up to the next generation of farmers to tackle the increasing demands of climate change, which may mean using these new varieties of trees and, in the process, reshaping our internal pictures of what Christmas trees may look like in the future.
