Drought Stresses Christmas Trees and Those Who Grow Them
By GRACE KELLY/ecoRI News staff
But this year, the evergreen firs we
bring into our homes for our winter celebrations might not be as vibrant.
This summer’s drought —
which still has much of Rhode Island classified as
experiencing moderate to severe drought — has brought many a local conifer to
its knees, either killing young trees outright or causing trauma to older trees
that resulted in extensive needle loss.
With saplings hit particularly hard,
this season has been rough for some of the smaller local Christmas tree
farmers, many of whom were already struggling.
Some 24.5 million live Christmas
trees were bought nationwide in 2012,
which was down from 30.8 million live trees sold in 2011. Last year an American Christmas Tree
Association survey found that 82 percent of Christmas trees on
display are artificial, with many consumers starting to choose trees that you
can simply unbox and plug in.
In Rhode Island alone, the number of
members of the Rhode Island Christmas Tree Growers Association
have dwindled over the years.
“It’s a labor of love,” said Tim Leyden of Big John Leyden’s Tree Farm in West Greenwich. “It’s nine months of the year, eight days a week. And most tree farmers are part-time.”
Leyden said while his more mature
trees weathered the drought just fine, they lost a majority of the seedlings
his crew planted in the spring.
“Any trees over two to three feet
were not affected one bit, they’re doing great; we had a great growing season
because our soil is good and the trees are well established,” he said. “As far
as the seedlings go, we planted about 10,000 seedlings in the spring, and we
lost 90 percent of those.”
But even with sapling loss, Leyden
still feels good about this season and is expecting record crowds questing for
a real tree this year because of COVID-induced cabin fever. But some other
smaller farmers aren’t feeling so optimistic.
On Oct. 30, Clarks Christmas Tree
Farm, a stalwart of the Christmas tree scene in Tiverton, announced it wouldn’t
be selling any trees this year.
“It is with profound disappointment
that we’ve come to the decision we are not able to open this season,” the farm
wrote on Facebook. “The unprecedented drought this
past summer has had a lingering effect on our tree stock, and we cannot in good
conscience sell these trees to our valued customers. We lost hundreds of
smaller trees.”
Sarah Partyka, owner of The Farmer’s Daughter in South Kingstown,
said the farm’s seedling trees also suffered losses this year.
“We did see some loss on the baby
trees we planted,” she said. “You're gonna see loss every year, but this was
more of an extreme year.”
Fir trees can take anywhere from
6-12 years to mature, so losing a season’s saplings can be a tough knock for
small-scale tree farmers. And during drought, evergreens are one of the first
trees to exhibit signs of stress.
According to the University of Maryland Extension
program, “needle tips will turn brown and branch tips will show
needle drop or dieback, possibly followed by the death of the tree if the
drought continues.”
While it’s normal and healthy for
mature evergreens to shed their oldest needles once a year around the end of
October, Partyka has seen abnormal levels of needle loss on some of her older
trees.
“We’re seeing not just the normal needle drop … unfortunately the trees got stressed and this is where you’re seeing a tremendous amount of needle drop,” she said.
“On some trees we’re
seeing over 50 percent needle drop. We have numerous fields, and each have
slightly different microclimates, so if there’s a dry gravelly knoll, those
trees suffered the most. They’re being planted on a tree plantation where we
don’t have access to irrigation, so it’s really up to Mother Nature.”