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GARDENING
The Christmas tree of today:
Talking with Field of Dreams Farm’s Ken Brown
By Sally Cunningham; photo by kc kratt
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Ken Brown at Field of Dreams.
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When Ken Brown planted his first 1,500 trees in 1983, he didn’t have a clear vision of the future Field of Dreams Farm in South Wales (6550 Vermont Hill Road; 652-7638). But he kept planting, about 2,000 trees a year. Twenty-seven years later he’s planted well over 50,000 evergreen trees on his working twenty acres. A former Cornell Cooperative Extension Agent in Erie County, he has given gardening advice on WBEN Radio (Saturdays, 11 a.m., WBEN-AM 930) for twenty-one years. The farm is a cut-your-own Christmas tree business, open from the Friday after Thanksgiving until the second Sunday in December. Brown does almost all of it by himself.
What does it take to grow a Christmas tree?
About ten years and a lot of work.
And what’s the actual work?
I plant in April, use weed killer in May, and fertilize in spring. Then there’s mowing, between rows. In mid-June, I start pruning—the old-fashioned way, with hedge clippers and hand pruners. Nowadays some farms use electric shears and knives. I’d like to get the pruning done by mid-summer, but actually I was still at it in September!
How much has the tree selection changed over the years?
Well it used to be Scots pine (most people say “Scotch” pine), white pine, blue spruce, Douglas fir, and balsam fir. Now most farms hardly grow any pines, and there are some new spruces and lots of firs coming into the market. The Fraser fir is the most popular—a great tree—and then the concolor. But you’ll find the grand fir, Canaan fir, and Nordmann out there—just beautiful. We’re all experimenting, though, because deer and late spring frosts may be too much for some of them. The Turkish fir, for instance, is one gorgeous tree—but the deer practically inhale it.
Any spruces other than the Colorado blue?
Watch for the Meyers spruce, out of China—the most beautiful shape without any pruning. It would make a great yard tree; nurseries should start carrying it. It’s really susceptible to late frosts, though, so it depends on where you are.
So like everyone in agriculture, you’re really weather dependent. Is that your biggest challenge?
Sure, it’s weather. As the old farmers say, “A dry summer will hurt ya; a wet summer will kill ya.” Wet years lead to fungal diseases. The past two years have been rough. Then it’s the soils, too—heavy clay that won’t drain—just impossible. I gave up planting five acres because of it. And of course we’ll always lose some trees to the deer, rubbing and browsing.
I know it’s an eco-friendly kind of business, but do you ever have to spray?
I don’t use any pest-control products, but do have to control weeds.
Does the business put you in the Christmas spirit? Is that the best part?
Heck, no! What I like is being my own boss, even if it’s hard to get out there at ninety degrees in July and do the sticky pruning. And also, growing a quality product.
Have artificial trees encroached much on the business?
No, business is steady. Even on stormy weekends, people who want a fresh-cut tree come anyway, and I don’t see any downturn. They come for fresh trees, the entertainment, the country experience. A lot more people want to support local businesses.
But there is one other problem I see: A lot of us, at least around here, are nearing retirement age, and if we have kids, their careers are off in other directions. They don’t all want to work the farms.
Is there anything else that’s new in this business?
It’s the genetic improvements, leading us to better trees. Now there are seed orchards, so we can get better form, color, more buds, and a better growth rate. What’s ahead is exciting.
As we parted, Brown said that other fresh-cut or cut-your-own farms in Erie and nearby counties offer hay rides, hot cider, and other fun extras. (Find descriptions at www.christmastreesny.org.) Field of Dreams offers hot cocoa, and, after people cut their trees, his staff haul their purchases out of the field. Like most farms, Brown’s has a bundling or wrapping machine, so the trees will fit inside most cars. Brown also makes about 350 wreaths by hand each year (plus swags, and candy-cane and star shapes). “It keeps me busy between customers,” he says.
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Christmas Trees Then
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It’s 1959, a Saturday in December. Dad is in the garage, with the door wide open, watching for customers and making wreaths. He’s wiring bundles of pine clippings onto a wire frame. The girl, about twelve, is also standing at the work table, cutting up the tree branches for clippings. Her hands already hurt from squeezing the stiff clippers, and her feet are cold from the cement floor. Uncomfortable or not, she kind of likes being part of this, and knows she has to do it. Dad says “These trees are going to put you through college.”
They have a Christmas tree farm, the old-fashioned Mom ‘n’ Pop kind. Dad learned from the Cooperative Extension Service bulletin about what to plant: Scots pines, red pines, and spruce. The girl remembers being very little, trailing behind Dad, Mom, and Grandpa when they were planting the trees. They made slits in the ground with shovels, slipped the seedlings in, and pressed down with their feet. She helped, too. It took a few years, but they finally planted 14,000 trees on their twenty acres, and lots of them grew up to be Christmas trees.
When customers show up, Dad gives them a coarse-toothed saw and points them past the pond, where big red arrows show the trail to the trees. Some of them—mostly city people—are dressed all wrong for hiking in the snow. Sometimes they come back carrying the tree on their shoulders, even though Dad told them to drag it. And lots of them pick trees that are way too tall for their living rooms. (Trees always look shorter out in the open.)
When the customers get back, Dad offers them a hot-buttered rum. The girl fixes the mugs: 1 tablespoon of butter, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and an overflowing jigger of rum, with boiling water from the kettle on the hot plate. Kids get cocoa with marshmallows. By the time they start roping the trees to the roofs of their cars, everybody’s all warmed up.
The girl doesn’t like some parts of the Christmas tree business. She hates pruning time in early summer, when they work with the long-handled hedge clippers. The problem is being the owner’s daughter and trying to make teenage boys keep working and respect the property. (Tommy M tried to cut up a snake, and she had to wrestle with him to make him stop.) Sometimes the boys cut past a tree’s new growth—called the “candle”—and that could wreck the tree’s shape.
It was a hot, sticky, and tense time, but it helped me get through college.
—SC
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Buy real—buy local
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Every December, the real-versus-plastic debate kicks in. “It’s not Christmas without a real tree,” some say. Fresh-cut trees are part of our culture, the fragrance embedded in our memories. Others say, “We’re getting too old for all that mess—and the artificial ones look so natural these days!”
While I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind about going plastic, here are some reasons to use real, locally grown Christmas trees:
• Family-owned tree farms are important business, accounting for $8.8 million in sales annually. New York State is seventh in the nation for tree production (Christmas trees combined with others).
• Tree farming is eco-friendly, using little or no pesticide and providing wildlife habitat. The alternative for many farms would be selling the land for development.
• In the U.S., nearly a half million trees are growing for Christmas tree use. Growers plant over 40 million trees each year—all providing oxygen and habitat.
• Eighty-five percent of artificial trees come from China, and end up in landfills (where they do not decompose).
The most popular trees in America are Fraser, Douglas, and balsam firs, followed by Colorado blue spruce, and concolor firs. Many more kinds are now available, and well worth trying. Ultimately, the best tree for you depends on your special situation. If you have heavy ornaments, you need a stiff-branched spruce or sturdy concolor fir. For softness, a white pine or balsam fir is simply a pleasure, although the boughs bend and attaching ornaments isn’t so easy.
As for needle retention, the popular Frasers and Douglas firs rank high, and spruces are usually maligned. But almost every tree, including Colorado blue spruces, if cut fresh and put straight into fresh water (that is replaced regularly), should hold on to its needles for several weeks.
—SC
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Sally Cunningham grew up on a Christmas tree farm. Now she is a garden writer, consultant, and lecturer, and is seen on WIVB-TV (Channel 4) on Sunday mornings. She also works for Lockwood’s Greenhouses in Hamburg, and the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors’ Bureau (National Garden Festival).
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