The old farm buildings still exist, for example, the farm house was built
in 1791. We have restored the farm house and plan to do also with the other
buildings, to make a special atmosphere for our customers. We also have
two Haflinger horses ( an Austrian mountain horse species ) children of
our customers like to ride.
The farm covers about 100 acres with poor to middle soilquality and partially
steep slopes, but with the best climate conditions for growing Christmas
trees ( 8. 5 degrees Celsius is the average annual temperature and we receive
90cm of precipitation a year. The land use can be divided into 20 acres
cultivated for Christmas trees, 50 acres for timber production and the rest
in Meadows. In former years ( also my father ) the farmer had a fulltime
job on the farm with a dairy farm before 1970. Now with my profession as
a soil scientist, I have a fulltime job in soil protection so I have to
operate the Christmas tree farm in the evenings, weekends and at the time
of holiday ( 6 free weeks in the year ).
We started growing Christmas trees in 1968, beginning with three acres
of Douglas fur. Now we grow Blue spruce 35%, grand room fur ( 20% ),Nordmann
fur ( 15 ) % Noble fur ( 1 0 % ), Norway spruce ( 1 0 %) Douglas fur, mountain
strain ( 5% ) and others ( 5% ), life Norway and Scotch pine,Nicco fur and
Concolor fir. In the future we plan to produce more Nordmann fir ( up to
4 0 % ), Noble fir ( 2 0 % ) and Fraser fir ( 1 0 % to 2 0 % ).
Because of our steep slopes and also for choose and cut, we have to plant
our trees with a and hoe and continue to fill in gaps in the rows. We produce
our own seedlings, generally as 2+ 2 transplants.
A tree disease of root rot by the fungus armiliaria mellea and the Sitka
aphid on blue spruce, cause us to spray with insecticides, but only at heavy
infections. Grand fir often suffer with a new fungus needle disease and
since application of fungicide is very difficult ( 4 to 5 applicants are
needed ), we have stopped producing grand fir.
In late summer we fertilize the adult trees and the Noble fir designed for
green production with nitrogen, potash and magnesia for better needle color.
We sell about 3,000 trees each year at prices of about three marks per foot
for the cheapest tree species ( Norway spruce ), ( 1 U. S. $=1.5 German
marks ) 6 marks per foot for medium priced trees like Grand fir, blue spruce
and Austrian pine, and 9 to 10 marks as the upper limit for trees like Noble
fir and Nordmann fir. All trees we grow are sold direct to their customers
at the farm, with about 5 to 10 % being sold by choose and cut.
Our marketing emphasis is to convince our customers of fresh tree quality
with our advertising slogan, "we cut daily fresh", and that we
are growing trees with and not against nature ( for example, weed management
with sheep, no plastic netting but only sisal filling for baling ).
Another main point in our marketing strategy is to make tree shopping an
adventure for our customers. We have an historic and interesting market
place here at the farm and also we offer hot apple wine and cookies, where
sales are completely devoted for social benefits ( 1994 for street children
in Bolivia )."
Most of our customers are from the big cities ofMannheim and Heidelberg
and we are very proud of our American customers who live on U. S. Army
facilities in those two cities. A problem we face is that the United states
Army numbers in Germany have been reduced.
In all of Germany, about 2 0 million trees are marketed to meet demand,
with only 5-10 % of these being artificial trees. The old tradition known
from the first Christmas trees in Strassburg in the middle of the 16th
century and the black forest country give emphasis to Christmas tree sales.
About 2-3 million trees are imported mainly from Denmark. The classic species
in Germany is the Norway spruce and the white fur which originated from
the black forest. At the present time most customers prefer the Colorado
blue spruce ( mainly ),Nordmann and Noble furs.
If you ever happen to be in the Heidelberg area of Germany, we invite you
to visit our historic Christmas tree farm.