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5 Mar ’12
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So we sold a good number of Christmas Trees last year that the previous owner had planted. I wanted to keep this going in the future so we sectioned off a portion of our field, that I was originally thinking of putting out to pasture with animals, and planted 320 trees. It's a mixture of Colorado Blue Spruce, Balsam Fir, Fraser Fir, etc. It was a larger effort than imagined but with many hands the labor was light. This project and the coop project confirmed that I would really like to have a UTV. The ATV was able to work somewhat but the trailer can be a pain and this ATV isn't really geared for driving at slow speeds.
Getting started and measured.
And now with more trees planted. We ended up with 7 rows and a few extra trees.
I am going to put up some t posts to clearly mark where the trees are and I will need to start mowing around the trees. Watering has been a concern and so I just ordered one of these bad boys for the back of the ATV...
27 Aug ’14
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This is an awesome idea! How did you figure out how far to plant them? Also, do you have a pond that you could set up an automatic timer for? I know that in Texas for the first two years having a regular watering schedule helps them establish a solid root system.
6 Feb ’13
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cool pork! We are starting up are christmas tree farm again. 200 white spruce/white pines planted.. We used to do 1000 a year and wholesale but dad concludes its not worth the effort for wholesale so i want to just focus on cut your own...so we picked the numbers we are planting approriate to that. We never watered our tree's? Different climate?
Hope you make a buncho dollars. .... the also serve as a nice wind break..esp from looking at your pics (looks like you are high up large field) a lot like around here (ny) . Dont forget pine needle tea!
15 Feb ’12
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How long do they have to grow before harvest?
5 Mar ’12
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Thanks guys! I went with 7' spacing which is on the generous side, from what I have read. This allows the trees a lot of room to grow and for people to walk around and cut them down. There is a pond close by but it dries up during the summer and I am probably going to fill it in. I have 2 hoses hooked together and we can make it out to the trees -- but just the ends of the rows close to the house. I am hoping the water tank and sprayer makes short work of it.
Speed -- I am watering them for a few reasons. First is it took me ~5 days to get them all planted so I want to make sure they are hydrated and when we planted them they were super sunny days and the temp was 75 to 80 degrees. It's cooled down now so I am waiting a few days to water again. I also want the trees to grow faster than the grass and roughage in the field so want to water them as much as I can.
K -- I am expecting 7 years+. Maybe less, I did buy seedlings that are a mixture of 1 to 2 years old, so we'll see. I plan on planting the same amount every year for the next 4 years. So hopefully in ~7 years I will have a steady stream of income from the trees. After this field gets filled up I will move back to the areas that currently planted with pine trees.
The following users say thank you to PorkChopsMmm for this useful post:
Speedfunk, icanreachit15 Feb ’12
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Nice income stream once it is going, are the seedlings expensive?
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