Christmas tree farm spring update, Things don’t always go as planned.
Hello Rob here from Flanagan Homestead And Eastport Christmas Tree farms uh Today is the first week of April 2023. This is a time of year that we're Normally doing a lot fertilizing and Herbicide not going down and that type Of thing and uh I'm unloading fertilizer From my truck right now and uh I'm this Is not going to be necessarily A how-to But this is going to be a sometimes Things don't go as planned and you just Got to adapt so the fertilizer is in my Truck right now I sent a young gentleman To pick it up for me and he was going to Keep it in his truck and then go up and Down the fields and then just go Straight from his truck out there but Due to his schedule he couldn't do it Today so we had to transfer it to my Truck I'm transferring it into the barn And then we'll transfer it probably back Into his truck to get it done so it's Not quite as efficient but we'll get That done we're not getting it done Today but in the next couple days he's Going to be able to come out and help me Get the fertilizer down so and again we I'll talk more about that when we Actually do it but we sprinkled two Ounces per foot hide a tree around the Drip line of the trees it's faster and Easier to put it on a tractor and drive Through in a spreader and the the Fertilizer hits the trees and then drops
Around the drip line but you're also Fertilizing all the middles of the roads And everything where you don't want Weeds growing and that's that's where You'll be doing is fertilizing the weeds So we like to hand sprinkle it around There so and we use 23010 with Boron the Other part that's a little bit more Concerning right now is we were Comparing notes with other Farmers Around here and what we should do for Weed control whatnot and we went from Trying to do mechanical or just cutting All the weeds down to Spring herbicide Last year and we had a pretty good kill But because it had established so much a Lot came back there's a lot of seed in There and it was coming back and uh Talking to us some other Christmas tree Farmers are like hey you need to get This one earlier before the Weeds start Coming up so you can get a better spread On the soil and all the small weeds and So we actually because I'm a school Teacher and I have the first week of April off and we wanted to do it earlier I hired a guy to come and spray the Weeds and he's got better equipment than I do he's got the tractor that holds 100 Gallons as a herbicide as opposed to my Quad which holds 20 gallons but in Anyway I hired him weeks ago and uh he Bought the chemicals and it has rained And rained and rained and he hasn't been
Able to put it down so in the year that We decide we're going to do our Herbicide earlier We're actually going to do it later than Ever and I'm going to go check the field Out here in just a second here Um I'll show it to you but the weeds Have in the last couple weeks have Really taken off and so there's some uh Spread of the leaves and whatnot so We're not going to get a good spread of The soil Sterling on the ground so we're Going to be battling this probably for a Couple years to get ahead on the weeds But uh that's one concern the other Concern is because the weeds are Starting to grow but I'm afraid that the Smaller trees the buds are going to Start opening up and if they're budding Out and growing the herbicide is going To kill my trees so we need to get the Rains to stop and the weather forecast You know earlier this week's just said Rain rain rain rain on the 10-day Forecast hopefully we get a break but uh The rains have got to stop just long Enough that we can get the herbicide Down and into onto the plants and then Come back but we have we haven't had a Day in three weeks that we are confident That it was going to rain sometime that Day so hopefully that comes soon So here's one of the rows that you can See the thistle has really started to
Take off and spread And this is an area that the Sterling is Going to have a hard time getting to the Ground we have this grass I'm not even Sure what what's going on here that this Grass and this type of grass grows in Big old clumps and it's hard to get Knocked these back and kill them and get The herbicide down to the ground and the Other plants So this is encouraging as far as trying To get the herbicide down normally this Time of year the buds are starting to Swell on the younger trees and they're Opening up but these are still closed Pretty tight I could spray herbicide Today and not hurt anything here Same thing here this tree is in good Shape except for the moles trying to dig It up More really young trees Again it doesn't look like Bud swell is Happening We probably have At least a week maybe 10 more days we Could probably safely spray Well just as I said it's raining all the Time the sun comes out and makes a liar Out of me but you can see the clouds up Behind me here so uh there you have it I Think we have A little while yet to get our spray Downs safely down so hopefully that Happens fairly soon when we get the
Fertilizer down and the herbicide down We'll uh I'll try to make a video and Update you on what we're doing and how We're doing it but things don't always Go as planned but I think we still have Time to make everything work thanks for Joining me on the Flanagan Homestead Where Christmas trees are my business Teaching and cleaning Horticulture is my Job an outdoor projects are my passion Hope to see you again soon be blessed Everyone Boom
