Thursday, November 15, 2012

Christmas tree crop strong despite the drought


The Kaleidoscope Farms Christmas 2012 tree crop is looking great despite the challenging drought this summer.

The sale-sized trees have deep, well-developed root systems that help them overcome short-term drought conditions experienced in much of Ohio this year.

“The trees weathered the drought just fine and the late rains through the fall have rehydrated the soils and the trees are doing really well,” said Dave Reese, owner of Kaleidoscope Farms just north of Mt. Cory. “If the dry conditions would have persisted through the fall we would have been concerned about trees being too dry, but the wet weather in the last couple of months really took care of that concern.”

The large trees are just fine, but the young trees on the farm suffered significantly in the dry conditions. A substantial portion of the trees planted last spring and the spring of 2011 died in the drought.

“Unfortunately we lost quite a few of our youngest trees to the drought this year,” Reese said. “We will have to make up for the losses by planting more, older seedling in the next couple of years. The drought was very tough on us, but it really did not have much effect on the trees that we will be selling this year. In fact, we may have the best crop of trees we have ever had for sale this year.”

Whether in a dry year or a more normal year, Reese does advise putting the fresh cut trees into water as soon as possible after bringing them home from the farm. They will take up a surprising amount of water, especially in the first few days.

For questions, contact Reese at 419-722-1154 or visit Kaleidoscopefarms.com.

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