Dry Weather Impacting Live Christmas Tree Prices

The wet weather has been a welcome relief for many trees— especially Christmas trees. 

All that dry weather means families could pay a little more for that perfect tree. 

At the pumpkin patch at Kadee Tree Farm in Greenville, some families were already getting ready for Christmas tree time. 

“We took the hay ride around and we saw a lot of lovely trees that are really full and pretty,” said Laura Roberts, who came out to the pumpkin patch.  

Owner, Tish Woodruff, said the stretch of dry weather will affect how many trees they can cut for Christmas.  

The farm is short 1,000 trees because of it. 

“We lost a lot of what we call our baby trees, which were in the first year, so that’ll be a lot of extra planting this year to get ready for the next few years,” said Woodruff.  

It plans to import trees from out of state. 

The cost of diesel, shipping, and fertilizer will force some farms, like hers, to charge a little more.  

Woodruff said other places have it worse. 

“Some of the smaller farms lost 90% of their trees, so that’s really going to affect their business where they might not be open this year,” said Woodruff 

Families will flock to the farm after Thanksgiving – a little less than a month – to hope for more rainy days. 

It takes about five years for a tree to grow five feet. 

Start looking early, since some farms won’t have as many Christmas trees to pick from.