Members of the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association (VCTGA) met earlier this month for a retreat at the Reynolds Homestead in Patrick County to learn about growing opportunities and the state of the industry.

They were told that the Christmas tree business was “stable to increasing,” and on a Google list of ten everyday items that have become unaffordable for the average American family, the Christmas tree is among them.

Growers have had to move away from the mindset that Christmas trees have to be cheap. Since the pandemic, the growth of the live Christmas tree industry has reached the point where scalable growth is possible.

With increasing plantings on more and larger farms specializing in this specific market, it is expected that this year’s demand for trees 6 feet tall or less will be met. Next year, trees 7 feet tall and above will be ready for harvest to meet the increasing demand.

Earl Deal of Smokey Holler Tree Farm in Laurel Springs, North Carolina, told the group that he plans to sell 100,000 Christmas trees this year.

Many of these farms are within driving distance of Martinsville and Henry County, and more and more land in the region is being used for this industry.

During the retreat, members toured White Horse Farm in nearby Calloway and learned about the use of drones in the field at Sweet Providence Tree Farm in Floyd.

The VCTGA’s headquarters are in Woolwine, and their website, virginiachristmastrees.org, has a database of Virginia tree nurseries.

Closest to Martinsville on the list is Ayers-Kreh Christmas Tree Farm at 1531 Ayers Orchard Road in Stuart, followed by White Horse and Sweet Providence. Rifton Farm and Nursery is located at 240 Rifton Lane Northeast in Pilot, less than 60 miles away.

The VCTGA was founded to promote Christmas tree cultivation and support the marketing of quality trees in Virginia.

The Fresh Tree Search allows customers to find choose-and-cut farms that specialize in the tree species they want.

Kyle Peer, Christmas tree specialist for Virginia Cooperative Extension and director of the Reynolds Homestead Forest Resources Research Center, wrote in a recent publication that more and more landowners in Virginia are considering Christmas tree farming as an alternative form of business for their unused open spaces.

“There is not much detailed information about the Christmas tree industry in Virginia, but it is estimated that there are between 400 and 500 growers in the state,” Peer wrote. “Size can range from small pick-and-place operations on a few acres of land to large wholesale operations with hundreds of acres, with the average farm production area being about 40 acres.”

Regardless of size, Peer says, successfully growing Christmas trees requires expertise as well as an investment of time and capital.

Growing Christmas trees is more expensive and time-consuming than growing timber.

It takes six to twelve years to grow a marketable Christmas tree, while it takes 20 to 30 years to produce wood. In addition, Christmas trees do not tie up land or capital resources for as long as wood production does.

Other advantages include that it can be grown economically on small areas, that ground cover and other agricultural crops are less invasive, that unlike other crops, expensive machinery is not required, and that the return on investment is attractive.

Peer said many people think growing Christmas trees is easy, but that’s not the case. To be successful, a farmer must be willing to learn the process and put in the time, work and money necessary to make a profit.

Trees that are to become marketable must have an environment in which they can not only survive but thrive. Peer said planting trees in areas that are too wet or dry or otherwise unsuitable results in weak, thin trees that are vulnerable to insects and disease.

While some would-be tree growers believe that a Christmas tree farm will pay off quickly and with a very high return, in reality the business carries the same risks as other types of tree farming, such as weather, disease, insects and market fluctuations.

“When the trees on the farm reach a saleable size, the farmer must consider how to market them,” Peer wrote. “In the past, typical methods of marketing trees were a sign at the farm entrance, an ad in the local newspaper, or a spot on a local TV or radio show. While all of these methods are still valid and extremely useful, more and more Christmas tree shoppers are choosing where to shop through social media. Every farm today should have an up-to-date website with pictures, videos, directions, and inventory on Facebook and Twitter.”

Anyone interested in further information from Peer can contact him at PO Box 70, Critz, VA 24082, by phone at 276-694-4135, or by email at [email protected].