Timing Christmas tree jobs to turn trash into profit.
At East Fork Christmas tree farms we want to be productive with our trees. One thing we wish to change is moving cutting handles, or basal pruning to the winter. This will allow us to use the branches which are waste in the summer as boughs for Christmas wreathes. One of the problems I had with this plan is we sheared our trees in the summer. This created cut tips which are not ideal for wreathes. @FlanaganHomestead
Hello Rob here from the Flanigan Homestead and East for Christmas Tree Farms I got an idea that I've never Tried before it's not rocket science but I just thought I'd give it a try I'm Pretty excited about it uh so uh many of You know Christmas re are really popular You can make a lot of money on Christmas Re I actually need a lot of boughs for My horiculture class and we're going to Make re with that but uh typically uh I Get I've got a lot of boughs out from The woods before or old trees that are Trees that we're going to coal out there Weren't good trees but they had good Branches but uh what we did this year I Had a uh my crew in here cutting handles Off of the trees all over the place what I call handles a lot of people call Basil pruning you know so cutting the Bottom 10 to 12 in uh all the branches Off the bottom 10 to 12 in and we have This section of trees out here we have About a th000 trees that were planted All the same year so about this size and I told him don't don't cut those yet I'm Going to come through and we're going to Cut the handles off of that in mid November like it is now and then I can Take those will be nice fresh Noble Boughs uh for uh for the re and then we Can go ahead and make the re so we're Going to do that I I there's some things That didn't quite work on my plan I'll
Talk about that in a minute but uh we're Looking forward to you know you have to Spend time I have to pay people to cut The uh Branch the handles anyway and Then the waste if I do it in the summer They just get burned or decompose in the Field but if I do it in the winter now I Can use them and so I'm kind of double Dipping or um making use of my waist and Turning it into a profit so we'll go Ahead and start cutting the Handles okay yo you don't have to sit There and watch me cut handles it's just Cutting the branches off the bottom but One of the things I mentioned that uh I Didn't do this I didn't execute this Plan quite as well as I'd like because I Did have my shearing crew come through There these are tall enough to start Shearing and start creating the shape And they came through and they cut the Outside edges and those are the branches That were going to be best for the uh re So if I do this in the future which I Think I will uh you know you can these Trees are selling for several years Anyway but you do want them sheared into The shape before they start growing next Spring so I will have my shearing crew Hold off on the next acre there that's Another year younger than these and uh Will not Shear them in the summer we'll Come through we'll cut the uh branches In the winter for the re and then we'll
Go ahead and go ahead and Shear them During the winter and they'll be ready To grow in the right shape uh next year So usually when I make a wreath you know We like to have at least the length of My hand and we like to have a good tip On the end of it and at least brand Coming out each side so uh and you want A unclipped tip so unfortunately with Our shearing I'm going to get into a lot Of these trees here that have the tips Sheared off so that Branch isn't going To work so I'm probably going to have to Cut twice as many branches as I normally Would for re to get them but again these All need to be cut these were all going To be waste but we're going to use it on Re now so anyway uh not too much more to Say about this plan except I'm going to Start cutting the handles hopefully I Get some good branches for Christmas Trees and like I said double dipping Making money with waste off the Christmas tree farm all right a couple Right here I have a couple branches that Show you why I should not have sheared The trees if I wanted to use this Section for Christmas trees because uh We came through and sheared and you can See the straight line right here where The blade came through and there's not The nice clean tips there's cut tips on The end of these you don't want that With re for reads you want tips like
This down a little bit lower where you Still have the bud on the end and then You have the branches out on either side That are uncut so this this part Actually right here could be used on a Wreath pretty easily but same thing Here's another branch that was cut off There the side tips are still pretty Good but the end tip right here so I Lost the value of this hand length right Here all right it's actually pretty dark Outside but the camera screen looks Pretty light so hopefully the camera is Adjusting for everything so you could See it but uh some of you might ask why Not just to let the trees grow a lot Taller have a lot bigger branches and Then prune them off then do the basil Pruning and have a lot more Branch uh it Gets significantly more difficult the Taller the tree gets to do the basil Pruning you want to do it when they're Smaller this tree that's about 3 ft tall Is way taller than we'd like it to be Before we do our basil pruning actually Cuz it has a lot more work this one That's just a little over 2 ft we'd like To get it done now or before that and so We want to have it up high enough that It has some other branches that we're Not going to cut off but then we could Take off the bottom and the branches Aren't big and thick and hard to work Yet so you know if if they're mid thigh
They're definitely tall enough to cut do Basil pruning I know some people that uh Will cut them really early and young cuz It's a lot easier and they'll basically Just leave the ter the leader and the Top whirl and that's all that they have Left and then they'll up from There thanks for joining me on the Flanagan Homestead where Christmas trees Are my business teaching cleaning Horiculture is my job and outdoor Projects are my passion hope to see you Again soon be blessed Everyone
