KIRKSVILLE, MO -- Christmas might not be the first thing on your mind with temperatures near 80 degrees. But, it’s those hot temperatures and extremely dry conditions this summer that might have your Christmas tree looking more like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
About 27 million Christmas Trees are sold annually across the United States and that means big business. After this summers drought, area farmers are worried their trees could all be turning brown.
“We lost probably 80 to 90 percent of the trees we planted last spring. In the last month or two, we have had several hundred of the more mature trees start to die and they have turned brown as well. It’s been kind of a tough year for Christmas Trees,” Fouch Christmas Tree Farm’s David Fouch said.
Despite hand watering the smaller trees several times this summer, one jug of water at a time, it wasn’t enough. Persistent temperatures over 100 degrees and worsening drought slowly killed off many of the smaller trees.
However consumers shouldn’t notice a huge difference when picking their tree out this year.
“Right now we have plenty of trees to sell this year, but we really can’t afford to have a lot more die,” said Fouch.
Fouch Christmas Tree Farm planted their first trees back in 1983 and opened for business in 1990. This isn’t the first time the farm has lost trees. Back in 2011, thousands of trees had to be cut down, in part due to heavy spring rains. Still, the 2012 drought is one of the worst they have seen.
“We lost over 3,000 of the trees that we planted last spring so that is going to leave a gap there several years down the road. We will make the best of the situation,” said Fouch.
Now farmers say you shouldn’t worry, after all, it was just one bad summer. Come next spring, thousands of these baby Christmas Trees will be planted to make up for the crop.
Real trees outsell fake ones by greater than a 3:1 margin and come thanksgiving the Fouch Christmas Tree Farm will be ready for you to chop yours down.
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