(KNSI) – A Clear Lake Christmas tree farmer says that trees are plentiful despite this year’s drought. Owner of B&J Evergreens, Trent “The Tree Guy” Johnson, says the drought had a minimal impact on this year’s crop.
“We didn’t get as much growth. When you’re planning on a tree going from six-foot to seven-foot, maybe you only got to six and a half in some cases, so it did slow down inventory.”
Trent says they were able to keep their trees alive until mother nature provided some relief.
“We were able to water about 95% of our trees one way or the other even if it was just one shot for the marketable trees during that stressful times. Thankfully in August and September, we did get some good rains and the trees rehydrated before Christmas.”
He says it takes about ten years for a tree to grow tall enough to sell. Trent says the drought hurt newly planted trees the hardest.
“We had a lot higher loss of our first-year plantings, and it was not just lack of moisture but the excessive heat in June it was very persistent 95 degrees, and that heats the soil and also in sandier soil, baked some of our seedling roots.”
He says the drought’s effect on future Christmas tree harvests won’t be known for about a decade. Trent says even though Christmas is less than two weeks away, there’s still a lot of trees available this year.
B&J Evergreens in Clear Lake will be open until December 23rd.
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