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

[ultrarunner]

It was the family's first venture into the Christmas tree business and overall it was a positive experience.

Posted that my brother bought an old homestead that had been a Christmas Tree farm going back to the 1970's.

With a couple of hundred trees remaining he decided to give it a go and brought in 1200 cut trees...

Sold about 150 U-Cut and 950 pre-cut... so still 250 very nice trees that will go into the chipper...

Met a lot of the neighbors and learned the tree lot was a local institution... many said they had heard it was closed forever and glad to see the tradition going forward...

Hired some good local kids from the High School and Community College who were very happy to be put on the payroll...

Lessons learned and will make adjustments next year... also, the re-planting starts in a few weeks to build up the inventory.

Hope is that folks now know the farm is back in business it will again become a local destination.... in past years they were selling about 2,000 trees each year.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey that's good to hear! :thumbsup:

We had trouble finding a nice u-cut tree this year. The place we go to, the guy sold most of them off in a mass cutting a couple years ago and did not think to replant fast enough. There are acres of 1-2' tall trees, acres of brush hogged mess, and about 6 rows of Charlie Brown trees. Pretty disappointing, as we'd been going there for 20+ years.

Then we went to an address where the ad on the internet said lots of nice tree. Firs and pines. We have saws. You bring the Advil! All trees $25.00. So we zoomed across the county only to find someone's back yard with about forty 20-year-old evergreens that were 8-12' tall and two feet in diameter. Grrrr....

We ended up back across the county again going to a person's house that was interviewed in the newspaper and came across as a large Christmas tree farm, only to find a half acre of misshaped trees with 4' weeds all around them that made the bottoms bare. But we found the last good one on the place. $20.00. Whew! That was close.

Anyhow, we'll have to research new u-cuts better next year. We want to avoid the "experience" places, as the trees are a lot more expensive and the crowds all seem to be from Chicago. What ever happened to the plain old Christmas Tree Farm? Same thing that happened to pick-your-own orchards, I suppose. I suppose that's the way to get crowds in and make money. But I miss the old times.

 

[fishheadbob]

I've been growing and selling choose and cut (u-cut) Christmas trees 15 years. I'm a small fish, only do a few hundred trees per year. It's a labor of love although it does generate a few extra dollars. I retired from a regular job at an early age so I have lots of time to give the tree farm which occupies about 12 acres behind the barn. It's a 10 month a year job but unlike cattle which need tending every day, the trees don't demand my daily presence except from Thanksgiving to before Christmas when it is everyday from 10 until dark. Most work during the year can be deferred for a week or so.
I have one super employee on weekends, I handle the 5 or 10 weekday trees by myself. We bale all trees, cut the ends square, and ask if customers want the lower whorl or two removed to fit into their stand. Fortunately 80% of my customers are rural so we see a lot of pickup trucks which beats loading a 10 foot tree on top of a Prius for the 25 mile ride into the city although it sure happens. I think I'm moderately priced - I average under $50 per tree. I give breaks to military service men, veterans, seniors, just about anybody who asks, and if somebody is taking a lesser tree I'll knock a few bucks off without them asking. Candy canes for the kids. I have 2 friends/competitors who have their own niche. One sells any tree for $35, the other sells high end trees at high end prices; it's my observation that both give good value for the price, as do I. I kind of think of it that one sells Chevy Cruises, I sell Impalas, and the high end guy sells Lexus. When a customer can't find what he wants on our farm we refer them to a competitor depending on what they're looking for, always telling the customer to tell the next farmer that we sent them, good for a beer at the next meeting. It's always a wash on the beer tree referrals, just a good running joke among the 3 of us.
Trees don't get good looking by themselves. Beside planting in April there's shearing, culling, weed control and mowing, scouting for bad insects or disease, treating those problems, stump removal, machinery maintenance, and on and on. Lots more info but this is getting too long.

 

[ultrarunner]

We learned a lot this year... people expected popcorn, candy canes and cider... did not have that the day after thanksgiving.... but did the day after.

The large tent came in handy for flocked trees and when it rained.

Wood chips did a great job keeping the mud at bay and parking lot was good... years of gravel and traffic...

Still remember one little boy... went up the hill and cut down the saddest tree I had ever seen... he was so proud... told him Santa was giving it to him and he beamed...

Got some real nice yelp and Facebook reviews and a few saying the good you-cut trees are all gone...

I found out last night the boy scout lot 25 miles away was out of trees last week... next year have to be more pro-active...

The widow and former owner came by and insisted on paying for a tree... she was very happy to see the trees continue... her husband passed at 98 and loved meeting the neighbors looking for a tree.

My brother did spend a lot in new pole LED lights and some rail fencing plus gravel... looked good... plus gave a face lift to Santa's Hut...

Do feel bad for some very nice trees that did not sell... just had too many cut trees for the demand...

 

[Country Geek]

Glad went well for you. Better than for this guy, although there is still a happy ending to the story: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/12/21/4420646/shaffer-christmas-tree-sale-goes.html

I got an artificial tree after a U-cut tree I got at a local lot dried up in about a week (yes I did water it) and my wife got scared of fire. I'm actually on my fourth artificial tree, and they are big expensive ones, we thought each one was going to be the last one we'd use forever, so don't let anyone tell you they save money! Despite having gone artificial that I like seeing the tree lots around and I do miss the smell of the tree in my house.

 

[ultrarunner]

Glad went well for you. Better than for this guy, although there is still a happy ending to the story: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/12/21/4420646/shaffer-christmas-tree-sale-goes.html

I got an artificial tree after a U-cut tree I got at a local lot dried up in about a week (yes I did water it) and my wife got scared of fire. I'm actually on my fourth artificial tree, and they are big expensive ones, we thought each one was going to be the last one we'd use forever, so don't let anyone tell you they save money! Despite having gone artificial that I like seeing the tree lots around and I do miss the smell of the tree in my house.

Nice story... we offered trees to local shelters and senior centers... no takers... a few cited fire regs and others said they had no one that could pick and set up a tree...

Here's a crazy idea I thought of last night...

Lost some sales because people couldn't find the perfect tree to cut...

I was thinking of putting some ABS pipe shorts in the ground and sticking in the beautiful firs in the pipe so people could cut them...

We did have on slight mishap... brother had planted a couple of redwoods next to his house and the day after Thanksgiving... someone had cut down one of the redwoods he had just planted... broke even on that one...

 

[TnAndy]

When we first bought our place (mountain side 'farm') in the early 80's, we went to a meeting by the newly formed local Christmas tree growers association. Sat in a meeting with with maybe 100 people. Many growers, but bunch like me that were just curious about the business.

Speaker asked "How many of you here have actually sold trees ?" Small number raised their hands.

Speaker then asked "How many of you have trees in the ground, but haven't yet sold any ?" Maybe half the room raised their hands.

I thought "WHOA....there are a lot of trees up the pipeline !".....which was the speaker's point. His recommendation was develop your market WAY before your trees are ready. If you have to buy trees from a grower, and then sell them to get your market established before your trees are ready, do it.

I left the meeting and never did plant a single tree.

We got into growing wine grapes instead, which a whole nuther story.