Tree farmers battle hot, dry conditions

LUXEMBURG - The hot, dry weather is taking a toll on a crop you probably aren't thinking about this time of year.

Some area Christmas tree farms are battling the heat, and growers are preoccupied, so they’re taking matters into their own hands.

At the Aissen Tree Farm in Luxemburg, the irrigation system's been running 12 hours a day for the past week.

“Very taxing. We’re up at dark and we’re usually out here till midnight, one o’clock shutting the system down,” said owner Jeff Aissen.

Water pumped from a pond on the property is sprayed over the 70 acres of trees on the farm's rolling hills.

“We spend a lot of time moving our pipe, changing our gun position to move to different sections in the field,” Aissen said.

Aissen said the larger trees can hold their own in the heat because their roots are established.

But he’s had about a dozen smaller ones succumb to the hot, dry conditions.

“This tree right here shows some signs of stress, the needles are stretched out, they’re elongated and there’s some drooping on this new growth here,” Aissen pointed out. “The top here, the needles are tight in, they’re not opened up, so that one’s showing a little stress and those are the trees that we’re most concerned about - the ones that we just planted this year,” explained Aissen.

The Wisconsin Christmas Tree Producers Association said growers in the southern part of the state, where drought conditions are prevalent, are probably having more of a problem.

However, it’s not enough to be a huge concern at this point, because they plan for it.

“The growers always plant two or three trees for every tree that’s harvested, because they anticipate losing some over that life span of eight to ten years before the tree can even be sold,” said Cheryl Nicholson with the association.

Meanwhile, Aissen says he’s being proactive to increase the survival rate of these young trees, until Mother Nature comes around.

“If we were to have a steady rain for a couple of days it would be nice, but we can’t control that, so we’re trying to do what we can to control our end of it,” Aissen said.

Now, no worries for when the holidays roll around and you want to head out to your local tree farm for a Christmas tree.

The Wisconsin Christmas Tree Producers Association said there will be the same abundance of Christmas trees available, because the growers always plan for having more trees than they’ll usually need.