Anyone have experience raising and selling Christmas Trees to the public?

[EddieWalker]

I have no personal experience with cutting trees or even going to a tree farm. There is one just down the road from me that seems to be doing very well. They call themselves a tree farm, but over the years it's gone from a big field of trees to more of a family orientated amusement park. They do hay rides, they have a giant corn maze, they have a few kiddy roller coasters and a restaurant. From what I understand, they don't make any money on the trees, but do fairly well at everything else. Everyone that I know who goes there, makes it a family outing for the day. Last year I noticed they where open selling pumpkins and doing all their other events. The parking lot is always packed when I go by there.

Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

Christmas trees on this property started in 1970... it was quite rural then.

Brother decided to give it go since he still had about 15 acres in trees... he calls most of them Charlie Brown Trees and priced accordingly for you cut.

Some of the folks stopping are on their third generation... so lots of local interest.

Plenty of easy parking, with high visibility site... three way stop is the gateway to the valley or town...

He did order 1200 cut trees from Oregon and underestimated the labor needed to set up... plus another 2k for poles and lights and a large tent, extra gravel for the lot...

Looks good... just hope it works out because there is now a Lowes and Home Depot within 6 miles...

He got all the licenses, permits, liability, tax id number... etc...

One of the guys that ran the operation for a few years offered to rent the area for 6 weeks for 4k... my brother was very unhappy with all the junk and left over trees he left behind last year prior to my brother buy the place... so it was a deal breaker.

 

[PILOON]

Never sold any myself but my good friend tried that.
He was set up in a large shopping mall and had quality stock.
He rapidly learned that he had to camp there 24/24 as the inventory would shrink considerably overnight.
After all the required equipment (bundlers, wrappers, tractor, bush hog etc etc) it was hard to show a profit.
When he would be at the point of sale folks would be helping themselves back at the farm.
To add to his misery his tractor was permanently borrowed one night.
Then the snomobiles also liked to run down his saplings as they played.

He soon gave up that venture.

 

[ultrarunner]

Sounds like a rough go...

The trees and 15 acres are in view of the house... I guess someone could get over gates and fences to get in after hours...

Snowmobiles won't be a problem... it's been in the mid 70's around here...

 

[Country Geek]

Never sold any myself but my good friend tried that.
He was set up in a large shopping mall and had quality stock.
He rapidly learned that he had to camp there 24/24 as the inventory would shrink considerably overnight.

Yep, every tree lot around here includes a camper with the attendant on site 24/7. Doesn't look like a very fun gig.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yesterday was the official kick off for the Christmas Tree season around here.

I went out to help both days after working the early shift at work.

Have to say it was a lot of fun and there was a constant stream of folks buying trees... today was a little slower.

Surprised homeowners actually buy any trees 12' and up... sold a few both days... even one 18 yesterday.

It was fun interacting with the customers and many had stories of buying trees here going back to the 1970's...

My 12 year old Nephew and 13 year old Niece worked all day and each walked away with over $50 in tips...

I'm hoping the family does real well and this might be the start of a new tradition.

 

[ultrarunner]

Just wanted to add a PS...

Brother has a little redwood grove some distance from the planted u-cut trees.

Sure enough, someone came down the hill with a cut redwood... oh well, charged them $49.50 and they didn't flinch.

Can't say my brother was happy about it... once a tree is cut... all you can do is make the best of it.

 

[MossRoad]

We lived in a house with 11'+ ceilings when I was a kid. Every year we'd go up to an old lady that lived near Lake Michigan a few miles from the Indiana border. Any tree... $5.00. Department stores would buy trees from her for their displays. We'd often buy an 18-20 foot tree. My mom would cut off the bottom branches and make wreaths with them. I still do the same thing, only I get 10 footers and make small bunches of boughs for the corners of the windows. Amazing what you can make with some clippers and a hot glue gun!

That old lady had been at it so long that towards the end of her life, the trees were too big to cut as Christmas trees. My dad would take the top of a 40' tree if it was nice. The old lady was always very happy to see people. I think we were one of her last customers. That was probably 35-40 years ago. The area is a forest now.

 

[MossRoad]

About 16 years ago I brought in a fresh cut tree, set it up, and left town for business, leaving my wife and kids home alone. A couple days later my wife called to tell me there were hundreds of praying mantis babies all over the house! :laughing:

We'd find those things everywhere for the next couple months. On the lamps. In the drawers. In the curtains. Heck, you'd be sitting there reading the newspaper and all of a sudden you'd notice one sitting on top of the page looking down at you.

We go over them looking for egg cases pretty good now.

 

[ultrarunner]

Hopefully no insect issues...

We did have few people that only asked for branches and we happily gave them away...

At the Fresh Cut stand the pile of branches accumulates so plenty to give away.

One thing is for sure... it's proving to be a great way to meet people...

Even though the ranch is only about 35 miles from my home... it's in an area I have never visited and I had no idea what a local tradition it had become going back almost 40 years.

Rain today... most of the activity was in the tent... no pictures to post