Any tree farm/nursery growers here on tbn?

[speedbump]

I have a partner who knows all about Palm Trees. He planted about 700 Palms of different varieties. Mostly Date Palms. Some Queen's and some Cabbage Palms (I can't spell Washtentonions). They have been in for almost 11 years. Some are 12' and some are 1' and all in between. I think all the land in Florida has been mined for Phosphate and that's why the ground is so different from one place to another. The real estate fiasco has brought the price down to almost nothing, so there they sit. We also have three different diseases that are killing them randomly. Nobody seems to know what it is or how to eradicate it.

I should have raised Cows on those four acres.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

I'm in "upstate" (a subjective term at best) New York. We bought 12 acres of an existing Christmas tree farm and are trying to plant about 100 trees every year and harvest enough to pay the taxes on the land and break even on costs, no more than that--so far we're still in the hole. We're losing trees to something that suddenly turns the trees brown and kills them with a season. We've lost a couple dozen in the last 18 months or so. Any ideas?

 

[spruce Deere]

I'm in "upstate" (a subjective term at best) New York. We bought 12 acres of an existing Christmas tree farm and are trying to plant about 100 trees every year and harvest enough to pay the taxes on the land and break even on costs, no more than that--so far we're still in the hole. We're losing trees to something that suddenly turns the trees brown and kills them with a season. We've lost a couple dozen in the last 18 months or so. Any ideas?

Almost sounds like a mite problem lil' red tractor. Find a tree that is showing stress and look at the needles, limbs closely for spots, webbing or other not right things. Find something on them an do a google search or take a sample to your county extension office for identification.

Mites are an issue with different x-mas tree plots around here. They can operate in cooler temps giving them more of a window of opportunity for destruction.

 

[spruce Deere]

Check to see if you have a local, regional or State Christmas Tree Growers Association. I'm on the board of the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Assoc. and actually joined about 2 years before starting to plant. It's a great way to learn about the business, talk to other local growers and decide if it's for you, or not. Try INLAND EMPIRE CHRISTMAS TREE ASSOCIATION

Thanks for the info happyman. I belong to a growers association, KVNG , but due to the markets over the course of the last few years members are few. Went from 40 active members to 20 last I checked.

X-mas trees are a tight market here. Hard to sell locally, due to all the national forests around here. X-mas trees are hard to sell when you can cut one for free, sorta, from state or forest service forests. The farms that do x-mas trees here started getting into ornamental growing of trees a while back, same reason i was thinking, for a broader market.

Gunna take some creative ideas and ingenuity.... The wife and I have got some ideas from looking at different tree farms back east and talking to a partner tree farmer who use to reside in Maine. All takes a little time and money, both a valuable commodity.

 

[JeffreyOwen]

Hello all,
I am not a nursery owner but I am the only mechanic for a 4 farm wholesale nursery here in Michigan. I enjoy watching the potential buyer haggle over the price of the "fugly" trees and plants. Even a fifty cent discount seems to excite some ! lol

 

[GILLYS CHILLI FARM AUSTRA]

Many people are just plain too scared to spend, so if someone is prepared to spend but haggle over 50 cents, then thank god they still inclined to part with their money. Thats my point of view if you can imagine no-one wanting to buy anything at any price, except food if things get real bad economically speaking.

 

[GILLYS CHILLI FARM AUSTRA]

A question for speedbump...

i want to remove some cabbage palms planted too close to my house and need to know how the root system is as far as foundations are concerned before i try dig them out. Can you help with some crucial removing information.

I had tried to sell them they probably 25-40 years old before getting a BH to dig them out but after several attempts and no inquiries i decided to give them a drastic prune/cut but really do wish to remove root ball too. Are they deep rooters etc

They too close to house for two main safety reasons...i'm concerned about roots affecting house foundations and secondly the tree tops catching fire during our high bush fire seasons in summer.

We had a bushfire disaster come through our area during 2009 [ look up Google 2009 BLACK SATURDAY BUSHFIRES] but we never got touched whereas many other homes in district were burnt to the ground and lives lost. So we have to prepare to remove any plants which could catch fire and spread to the house or outbuildings too easily. But wild fires as less able to be avoided but we have to take reasonable steps to protect us for future potential problems. I was very luck y in 2009 as i have some beautiful 100 year old shady cyprus trees 50 feet away from my house and they did not catch fire to pose a risk to my house...but im keeping them.

My brothers house not far from mine was encircled by fires which burned his verandas and part of his roof while his family were inside and he with water hoses trying to put out the flames, but the heat got so intense that he had to go back inside for protection from radiant heat. Some others in other arewas must have thought that bath tubs or water tanks would have saved them...but sure did not.

I believe you are having some severe bush fires in your north western areas, so you'd know about mother nature at its worst.

 

[JeffreyOwen]

I agree, any spending is a welcome thing. Here in our area we are seeing a trend of established homes and businesses adding to or completely changing their greenery. We used to sell mainly to contractors of new structures but with construction down things are changing, thankfully.