Christmas tree farms producing green in Virginia

Frans and Mary Kok pause at their Middleburg Christmas Tree Farm in Round Hill, Va. (Photo courtesy Middleburg Christmas Tree Farm)

Hundreds of farmers grow Christmas trees in Virginia. These farms are scattered throughout the Commonwealth.
“Virginia-grown Christmas trees are a highly sought-after item this time of year,” said Michael Wallace, director of communications of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Department data shows that sales of Christmas trees amounted to $11,574,475 during 2019, and that the inventory of Christmas trees included 4,341,773 trees in Virginia as of Dec. 31, 2019.
The 2017 Agricultural Census issued by the USDA NASS reported that 464 farms utilized 11,151 acres to grow Christmas trees in Virginia. An agricultural census is issued by the USDA every five years.
This specific census included details that showed that more than half of all these farms each included less than 10 acres.
A total of 474,902 cut Christmas trees were harvested in 2017.
More than 70 percent of these cut trees were harvested from 28 farms of 100 acres or more in Virginia.
The USDA NASS indicated in its 2012 Agricultural Census that there were 594 farms with 10,000 acres of Christmas trees throughout Virginia. More than one-third of all of the cut Christmas trees — 478,069 cut Christmas trees were produced in 2012 — were harvested on 11 farms of 100 or more acres in the Commonwealth.
In 2007, the USDA NASS indicated that there were 481 farms with 9,414 acres used to grow Christmas trees. A total of 313,710 cut Christmas trees were harvested in this year.
More than one-third of all of these cut trees were produced at 17 farms, each of which had more than 100 acres of Christmas trees under cultivation.
For farms that don’t yet have many mature trees — trees generally seven to ten years old — some decide to sell pre-cut Christmas trees that they bring in from other farms to start to build a business enterprise.
That’s the situation at Firever Pines Christmas Tree Farm. Ben and Angel Snyder purchased a ten acre farm to grow Christmas trees in Caroline County, Va., in 2017. Each year since then, they have planted tree seedlings at their Virginia farm.
“We are currently selling pre-cut trees from North Carolina,” Ben said. “Each year, we harvest a few trees from our Pennsylvania farm to sell. We sell our handmade wreaths online through etsy and our website.
Additionally, we host Pines and Pints events at local breweries. Participants are given a pint of beer, a blank wreath, a bow and all the decorations they need to decorate their own custom wreath. During the off-season we grow and sell wildflowers, zinnias, and sunflowers.”
Ben has been active in learning the skills needed to operate a Christmas Tree enterprise from a young age. He noted that he began farming Christmas trees at the age of 10 at his grandfather’s Christmas Tree Farm (Haring Tree Farms) in Lewisberry, Pa.
He said that he was heavily involved with his grandfather’s business — learning the craft over the past 20 years managing the primary location and tending to the trees throughout the season. In 2004, Mr. Snyder started a small farm of his own in Pennsylvania on his parent’s land where he still has trees growing.
Canaan Firs, Blue Spruces and White Pines are among several varieties of Christmas trees being tended at the Firever Pines Christmas Tree Farm. He said those trees should be ready for harvest in about four or five years. “In the meantime, we are able to harvest and sell some Arizona Cypress Trees grown at our Virginia farm because they are fast growing trees,” said Ben.
One of the larger Christmas Tree farms in the Commonwealth is Middleburg Christmas Tree Farm located in Round Hill in Loudoun County, Va.
The farm includes 126 acres, of which about 100 acres are used for Christmas Tree production.
“We have about 25,000 trees and seedlings in the ground,” said Frans Kok, owner of Middleburg Christmas Tree Farm. He and his family have been operating the farm since 1980. “This year, because of our strict COVID-19 policy, we expect to sell about 400 trees.” He indicated that sales are anticipated to be about $60,000 in 2021, with sales exclusively to consumers.
“We are down about 80 percent from 2018 because of climate change,” Kok said. “We have fungi in specific species which never were a problem when the summers were cooler and the winters were freezing. We destroyed about 7,000 trees which we should have sold were it not for additional disease problems.”
He noted that COVID-19 was a major problem in 2020: “Last year, we sold maybe six to seven trees to clients who know our farm very well and needed no support from our staff. It was a bad year.”
Kok is looking forward to better years in the future.
“With any luck, by 2024, we should be back up to about 1,500 to 2,500 trees a year,” stated Mr. Kok. This “…should bring in about $250,000 per year. It costs us about $150,000 per year to run the farm.”