95% LOSS of Concolor Fir Trees. I Think I Know Why.

Hey guys welcome back to wood street Farm i’m phil It is springtime we’re nearing Springtime here in central virginia We’re getting ready for our spring Planting And i was doing some work in the field This weekend And Noticed a couple things that i wanted to Share with you guys That are A little frustrating a little humbling And A little bit enlightening stick around We’re in the section of field here that We planted in the fall of 2020 i had Four rows of concolor furs right here And you can see Or you can’t see any trees here There haven’t been many Color survivors and i’ve had issues with Colors throughout our property there’s Only one little spot which i’ll show you In a little bit where we have some Survivors but these four rows here were 25 trees each row 100 trees And i pulled four surviving trees out of Here and even those four trees didn’t Look great The rest of this section up in here was Canadian first and there’s probably Fifty percent loss on those And we’re going to be filling in with

Pines in this area this year this is Going to be four full rows of austrian Pines and then everything else we’re Just going to fill in with white pines We’re kind of coming to the realization That Pines grow like look they’re literally Everywhere pines will grow here when we Started this venture We set out and we said ah we want to Grow better christmas trees than anyone Else and we want to have fur trees no no Other christmas tree farms in our region Have fur trees Well I think we know why Our heavy clay soil and our hot climate Just isn’t great for growing first Doesn’t mean we’re Not stubborn enough to keep trying we Will keep trying on a small scale and See if we can figure something Miraculous out but in the meantime we Need to get our inventory numbers up and We’ve been doing that in the last two Seasons with Leland cypress carolina sapphires and a Couple different species of pine Trying to figure out you know what grows Best what looks best as a christmas tree We have a bunch of norway spruces too But i throttled back on planting those Just because they have heavy needle loss And they don’t make that great of a

Christmas tree They look great in the field they’re Over here They look great but uh unless you cut Those later in the season they make a Big mess and that’s not The That’s not what customers want All right over here you can see where The the We sprayed these rows so you can see Where there was not much plant growth For For a period so there were four more Rows over here With 15 trees per row So that’s 60. so 160 Trees all together that were planted Here i pulled another four survivors out Of this so now i have eight survivors Out of 160 trees And what i’m going to be doing is Replanting those elsewhere where we’ve Had some more success with Concolors there’s one other thing that i Want to show you that just this is kind Of the mind-boggling part of all of this But i’m going to get these trees that I’ve already pulled in the ground first And then i’ll show you this other thing So here’s my bucket with my a trees all I’m gonna do and i just started this Before i turn on the camera I’ve got spots where trees were planted

Previously i’ve just turned the soil Over with a shovel in those spots i’ll Plant these by hand And you know these are all kind of Decent size oh this one i just noticed This one has If that’ll come in on the camera Some damage on the bark so that’s Probably long term I don’t know maybe it’ll survive maybe Not right now it looks good so i’m going To go ahead and plant it I don’t know if any of these others have Any issues but these are all going to Get in the ground and then i’ll show you That other things So All right the first couple trees are in The ground one thing i did notice is the Soil over here where these are as a much Finer less dense soil and that must have Something to do with how the few Surviving colors that i have are doing Over here this side of the field also Gets late afternoon shade so in the heat Of the summer these trees are not Getting roasted all day long like the Trees out in the middle of the field so Between the slightly better draining Lighter soil and the afternoon shade That must be part of the equation i Noticed right over here though the soil Changes just a few feet over there was One spot where a tree died right there

And that soil is a completely different Composition than just a few feet over There this is the typical kind of heavy Dense clay that we see a lot on our Property and as soon as i dug that hole I realized okay this is different i am Not going to put a tree here we’ve Already had at least one die in this Spot before so why repeat that so we Went down there where there were a Couple other gaps and like i said the Soil is completely different so i’ve Teased you with a couple uh mentions of Something else i want to show you we’re Going to walk over there now And the spoiler alert there’s going to Be some more trees to move So beginning the video i showed you four Empty rows over there four empty rows Right here where we had previously Planted some colors when we did that Planting there were a few extra trees That didn’t fit in the rows that we had Prepared so we kind of separated out the Smallest trees and we set them up in What i call a little transplant bed now This is not A true transplant bed but we made a Little area right here we tilled up a Little box and we had some leftover Scotch binds some leftover canadian fur Some leftover color furs that just Didn’t fit in the rows that we prepared And most of the trees that we put in

Here were just the exceptionally small Ones and i said well we’ll just let them Grow over here for a while and then We’ll move them out into the rose well Last year i pretty much just left these For dead it got so hot and so dry and i Kind of peeked over here and i saw a lot Of them were dead and I just i let it go so there’s tall grass Right here this area was never weeded it Was never fertilized it was never Irrigated but you peel back All of the weeds take a look There are Surviving trees in here There’s another one and i don’t know how Many there are i’ve kind of just poked Through here a little bit i’ve got at Least five or six But there are more there’s a couple Scotch pines Over there that i can do something with So that’s what we’re working on now is Pulling these out and we’ll go ahead and Move them to the field [Applause] Not a lot of root growth I don’t know how it survived but it did [Applause] Same with that these are just little Plugs There’s not a lot of root growth on There and their bud set for this year is Super small so like these aren’t

Extraordinary healthy But they are Alive I managed to collect eight more trees Out of there and Really these don’t look Any better or any worse than the ones That were in the field and i guess That’s kind of the mind-boggling part of All this and you can call it Enlightening you can call it frustrating It’s probably all of those things But The trees that we put in the field we Mowed around them religiously we Irrigated we fertilized we sprayed for Bugs we’ve sprayed for weeds we’ve done All the things that we’re supposed to do To have Successful healthy christmas trees and Then these ones we just put over there Left them for dead and We have survivors at probably close to The same rate as we did out in the field So take that for whatever it’s worth you Guys who you know stress over the care Of your trees it might just be more Environmental and more your soil Conditions that are contributing to the Success or the failure of your trees Than anything that you’re physically Doing to add to your trees i don’t know That’s just one little case one little Observation it’s not gonna mean i’m

Gonna stop doing all the things that i Do in the field to to care for the trees But Uh It is what it is it’s just an Observation and uh hopefully these guys In their new home with maybe some Slightly better soil and um you know the Right the right conditions these guys Will thrive and eventually become Someone’s christmas tree in their home And that obviously is our goal out here But along the way we’re learning a lot We’re losing a lot of trees and we’re Figuring things out as we go and that’s What i share here on the channel so Thanks for spending a little bit of time With me if you guys got any questions Comments observations or other insights That you might want to share if you have Had success growing christmas trees you Can leave those in the comments Everybody else who watches likes seeing The comments from people who know what They’re doing or at least know more than I know so if you have something to Contribute contribute that in the Comments hope you have a good one i’ll See you on the next video bye-bye