Living Christmas Trees Commercial Growing Process
Growing Living Christmas Trees
Living Christmas trees aged between 4 and 7 years old are brought into our commercial nursery from specialist growers. These premium quality young trees have been grown in the ground using our unique pot growing technique. The growing method, developed in collaboration with Tayside Forestry and Lows of Dundee, has been specially designed to control the development of the living tree roots. Our real Christmas trees are potted into plastic containers in the nursery and are then grown on in their pots to produce the final, traditional Living Christmas Tree product.
Pot Grown Living Christmas Trees
We employ 2 main growing techniques on our nursery to produce large numbers of premium quality pot grown living Christmas trees. The first system involves taking 4 years old Christmas tree transplants through varying pot sizes for up to 3 years. This gives us production of our smaller ranges of real Christmas trees of up to 90cm in height. The second system involves the field growing of 4 years old Christmas tree transplants in our new design growing pot for a further 4 to 5 years. The resulting real pot grown Christmas trees range from 1.1m to 1.75m in height. We use 2 + 2 transplants (i.e. 2 years in a seed bed, followed by 2 years lined out) for both our living Christmas tree growing systems. During years 3 and 4 at the plant nursery, the trees have their roots trimmed up to 6 times during the growing season. This promotes a vigorous, healthy root system and restricts top growth.
Sourcing Premium Quality Living Christmas Trees
It is important that the trees we use come from a good seed source. It is also important that they exhibit the correct characteristics for the commercial production of premium quality Christmas trees; good shape and colour, heavy branching, bushiness and late spring flushing to avoid damage by late frosts. The original seed sources for our real pot grown Christmas trees are special seed orchards in places as far away as the USA, Russia and Germany. During their time on the nursery our container grown living trees are regularly pruned, fed, watered and kept free from pests and diseases. The results are premium, high-quality real Christmas tree products, at their best and ready for use at Christmas time.
Spring Potting Living Christmas Trees
The Christmas tree transplants for our smaller ranges are potted at spring time. We use the smallest possible pots during the 3 growing seasons to reduce top growth by restricting root vigour. During year 2 any tree with a main leader longer than 20cm is pruned to encourage side shoot production. This process is repeated in year 3. The growing medium is currently a coarse peat based compost with a compound fertiliser added in small amounts up to 3 times during the growing season. The Christmas tree transplants for our larger ranges are also potted in the spring. We are currently conducting growing trials on the merits of autumn planting.
There are many challenges when growing large premium quality real Christmas trees using traditional methods, in pots above ground. Firstly, it is very expensive in both materials and labour. It is also difficult to give the trees a good growing environment whilst still being able to control leader extension and inter nodal length.
The Innovative Living Christmas Tree Growing Method
The idea for our new growing pots came from a chance meeting with a commercial Christmas tree grower from Florida in the USA. The grower had developed a root control bag that allowed a tree to be grown under field conditions. The process still allowed the tree to be lifted and potted on, keeping most of its root system intact. The key to the success of the system was that the growing bag had hundreds of small holes in the sides. The regular sized small holes allowed the tree to put small roots out through the bag. However, the strength of the growing bag material prevented the tree roots from growing bigger than the diameter of the holes in the bag. On the inside of the bag, the roots produced calluses up to the size of a thumbnail. When the bag was removed, and after potting, these calluses burst out to produce a mass of healthy new root. The potted tree could then continue its growth unhindered.
The technique of restricting tree root growth is key to producing a top quality pot grown tree. The fabric tree growing bags, whilst producing great results, have some inherent faults. They are expensive to produce, difficult to fill with soil and even more difficult to remove. At the end of the tree growing process, the bags are cut away from the tree roots making them useless for a second crop.
Living Christmas Trees have adapted the principles of the fabric growing bag into a specially developed rubberised plant pot with no traditional drainage holes. Our innovative tree growing pot has been designed with a controlled number of small holes in the side of the pot. The diameter of these living root holes has been carefully optimised to facilitate healthy but restricted tree root growth. Our young trees are planted in the living root pot, and the pots planted out into the field.
The unique Living Christmas Tree pot growing system works to a level beyond our expectations. The technique allows us to control the growth of our trees, whilst giving us the massive cost savings of being able to field grow the trees for 4 years. Our living root pots are cheaper than the root control bags. The living root pots are easier to plant, lift and take off, and can be re-used for successive crops.
We currently have around 300 thousand living Christmas trees being pot grown on contract in the field. We are currently developing a mould to allow mass production of our living root pots for use in growing a much wider range of plants. Our unique living root pots and growing expertise will be available to other commercial growers of trees and shrubs.
We see our unique and innovative system replacing traditional root balled or bare root production of trees and shrubs used widely in the amenity landscape industry. Our living root pot growing method provides a much cheaper option for producing large pot grown ornamental plants, shrubs and trees.
If you would like more information about the unique Living Christmas Trees' pot growing technique then please contact us using our Contact Form or send us an email at info@livingchristmastrees.co.uk.
