Best kinds of Christmas trees to grow ?

Anybody growing their own Christmas trees? I want to start some in south central PA. Wondered what best kinds are, how to grow, how to shear, etc. Have looked up some info, but wondered about others' personal experience.

We have some white pines growing, but they are kind of sparse.

I sure like the kinds that have a strong pine fragrance.

The balsam fir (Abies balsamea) is the most fragrant and used a lot for Christmas trees. It is also native to eastern US and very cold hardy. I don't know about pruning techniques, but there should be lots of info on the web.

Balsam Fir Abies balsamea and Fraser Fir Abies fraseri would be the best; Caucasian Fir Abies nordmanniana is also very good; the only down side about firs is they usually have 3 or 4 very slow-growing years at first, before speeding up, making them expensive to grow (lots of weeding while they stay small). Norway Spruce Picea abies is faster to start and so cheaper to grow, but also less good as it doesn't hold its needles so well. Avoid Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris, it doesn't look so good as a christmas tree.

Personally, I'd never shear a christmas tree, it completely ruins the natural symmetry and spacing of the branches, you lose the tiered effect and nice straight side branches in neat, well-spaced whorls. I always look for unsheared trees when selecting my own.

Don't fertilise too much; you want to aim for a moderate growth rate so the space between the whorls of branches (i.e., the annual growth rate) is about 30-40cm; wider than that and it looks spase, closer than that and there isn't the space to hang decorations.

Resin

pastime - yes, the Balsam sounds great. We have heavy clay, not well best drained and on the alkaline side, but I could amend the soil a bit. A worthwhile experiment. I grow mostly native plants.

Resin - two votes for Balsam Fir. Catalog says Fraser "will not do well in heavy wet clay," but I will be planting up on a hill, so maybe it would be OK. Worth the wait. I see the Causasian Fir is called the Nordmann Fir here. Maybe plant Norway Spruce which would be ready to cut before the firs. I'm not so young!

That's interesting about shearing and fertilizing - I see what you mean. Firs say "minimum shearing," so maybe you only need to shear an unruly tree like a White Pine (?) Anyway, I really appreciate the info. I'm tempted to buy some of each and see what happens!

Couple of pics off wikipedia, first a natural (unsheared) tree (photo by Magellan)

Resin

Second, a sheared tree (photo by Raul654)

Much less attractive!

Resin

Unsheared is much prettier.

Yes, I like the unsheared better too. Much nicer for ornaments as you say. Good photos - thanks.

We have our bought sheared tree in a bucket of water right now and lots of needles are falling off. Not a very fresh tree I guess. A homegrown would be so much better.

agree about balsam fir (famous canadian balsam resin source ? )
didn't know unsheared looked so pretty , thanks again Resin

Hi CompostR, We have purchased live Christmas trees in the past and then planted them. I'll be interested to hear how the process goes in reverse (plant and then use). The Colorado spruce has held it's form the best after planting. This year we're trying an Oregon Green Austrian pine. They have a nice form and good spacing between the branches, and are supposed to grow fairly slowly, which will be a plus for us (use for several years and then plant), but probably not a plus for planting then using ... so ... uh... never mind about the Oregon Green Austrian. =)

SnowlineRose - I imagine Oregon has good soil and climate for evergreens (cool and wet) ? I think we'll plant an assortment with some faster-growing evergreens. We don't need a big tree for Christmas, so maybe we'll live long enough to get one!

I just decorated our tree. It just never looks right and Resin - you made me see why. The ornaments all sit on the surface since the tree is so sheared and "full." There's no depth to it. Lights and ornaments situated inside the tree are hardly visible. Now I suppose people like to buy the "full" looking trees whereas the "sparse" looking ones would actually look better decorated. I think the ones we used to get when I was a child were sparser. Now I know why the trees always looked nicer when I was young! This is quite a revelation. I wonder if you can even find a sparser tree?

If enough people demand unsheared trees, the growers might eventually listen, but again, they might not. It is getting more and more difficult to find unsheared trees over here (10 years ago, almost all trees here were unsheared). There seems to be this idea among modern growers that "trees have to be sheared".

Resin

CompostR - I live on the lesser-known high & dry side of Oregon, on the eastern slope of the Cascade mountains. Your assortment plan sounds wonderful - and you can control the shearing (or lack thereof). Many people in this area get a $5 permit each year and go out into the National Forest and cut down their own tree. The trees always start out looking sort of Charlie Brown-ish, but once they are decorated, they look great - probably because they have never been sheared! :)

sheared tree looks like a juniper not a spruce

Both trees are firs (Abies) - the differences are entirely due to how they've been grown.

Resin

SnowlineRose - Aw, and who doesn't love a "Charlie Brown" anything? Didn't know the Cascades had a dry side. But are most of the trees there evergreens like Colorado Spruce?

Resin - Well, you gave me an idea - maybe I can grow our native Eastern White Pines and just fertilize them more so the branches grow closer together (the ones I have weren't fertilized or weeded very well and there are pretty big gaps between the branches). Yes, I think most people pick out a tree based on how "full" it looks. Wow, who knew?

East side of the Cascades is semi-desert - the west slopes catch all the rain and there's almost none left after the air has crossed over the crest.

If you fertilise the pines, they'll grow faster and the branches will be even further apart ;-) I've never seen a pine make a good christmas tree.

Resin

Oh, mmm. We could decorate them with gigantic ornaments to fill in the gaps : )

We are Christmas tree farmers, and my family has been for over 80 years.

Fraser was our best selling this year, followed by Concolor, and then Balsam, but probably because that's the order my brother was pushing them, LOL.

A neat tree is Serbian Spruce, some of their branches droop a little, and it's a lovely tree. Just average needle retention, though.

My only advice would be not to buy seedlings, buy the 3-2 plants, especially if you're not going to mow around them a lot.

Western Maines nursery is a good place to buy stock if you're just starting.

thanks, pollyk!

Which are fastest? Can you get them to grow fast by fertilizer and water?

Thanks for suggestions; it's driving me crazy having to decide what to get.

Do remember, the faster they grow, the more sparse the foliage will be - fast growth isn't necessarily a good thing!

In Britain, Sitka Spruce can grow 2 metres a year . . . but who wants a tree with the branch whorls 2 metres apart??

Resin

Most trees require 7-10 years to reach a saleable 6-7 foot tree from a 3/2 transplant. Blue Spruce maybe a year longer. But the rest pretty close in growth rate.

Fertilizer, water, and weed control witll help them grow more quickly.

Grow some of each?

Norway spruce would one of the faster growing trees, in my experience. They can reach 5' in 6 years with fertilizer and minimal shearing. They make a nice Christmas tree.