Unbelievable!  That’s what people say when they find out how long it takes to grow a Fraser Fir.

The process is this:

1.  We use 50 foot mechanical lifts to pick the seed on Roan Mountain, the primary Fraser Fir seed source in the world.  We only get to pick once every three or four years because the seed crop often is no good due to frost.

2.  We then send the seed  to Weyerhaeuser Corporation in Washington State where they grow small transplants for one year in the green house.  The the trees are then sent to Kenny Schultz just outside of Seatle where he grows the trees two more years in line-out beds.

3. Finally as a three year old tree it is shipped back to North Carolina after a three year vacation in the west, where we plant the trees on 4.5′ spacing in fields that average about 15 acres.

4.  In the field it usually takes 8 years to grow to a 6-7 foot size and one year for each size higher 7-8, 8-9, etc.  So our 30′ tree under gigantic trees on this website has been in the field 30 years plus 3 years it spent out west as a seedling.

Of course this is only the time spent in the field.  The work is in providing the nutrition, insect control, shaping and shearing and finally weed control.   All this time these trees are adding oxygen, using carbon dioxides, adding water to the atmosphere, controlling erosion and providing habitat.  This is a far cry from lead and plastic trees created in a factory in a faraway country which deplete the environment when they are made and when they are thrown away which surprisingly is very often.  Real Christmas trees are as green as it gets when it comes to manufacturing the perfect Christmas tree.