Farmers presented Oregon State University officials with a 30-foot Christmas tree in honor of the industry’s longtime cooperation with the university on breeding and production practices. The 18-year-old Nordmann fir was cut from Westwinds Farm near Dallas, Oregon, and moved to OSU’s Peavy Forest Science Center with the transportation and baling help from Silver Mountain Christmas Trees of Sublimity.

The Christmas tree industry has forced itself to evolve.

In less than a century, it’s shifted from relying on forest byproducts to producing a highly specialized horticultural crop.

That doesn’t mean the industry’s transformation is complete.

“It’s just a constant improvement that’s still going on,” said Ken Brown, a grower and former Oregon State University Extension specialist.

Farmers are becoming less reliant on seed collected from the wild and are instead planting seeds grown in dedicated orchards.

Rather than gamble on inherited traits, they’re now shaping the genetics of Christmas trees by selecting the best specimens and allowing them to cross breed.

The breeding effort is a mix of private and public endeavors: Farmers have established their own seed orchards, as have universities such as OSU.

“More and more, we rely on seed orchards to get seed,” said Cal Landgren, OSU Extension’s tree specialist.

“My motivation is to get the most seed out of the most trees to the most growers as widely as possible.”

‘Intriguing’ crop

The prospect of refining a relatively new crop is precisely what drew Ken Brown to the Christmas tree industry several decades ago.

“It was something intriguing for me — just taking a wild tree and culturing it to make it into a good-looking Christmas tree,” he said. “Growers are always experimenting on their cultural practices and we’re always selecting better seed stock.”

Production in the Pacific Northwest has long been dominated by noble firs and Douglas firs, but the industry is increasingly interested in several species that originated along the coast of the Black Sea: Nordmann firs, Turkish firs, and most recently, trojan firs.

Brown was captivated by the “outstanding foliage” of Nordmann and Turkish firs, as well as their resilience. Over time, the species have proven themselves among farmers, he said. “They’re a very grower-friendly tree.”

As for the newcomer, the trojan fir, the jury is still out regarding its promise as a commercially viable species, Brown said.

“A lot of time, there’s a lot of hyperbole with something new,” Brown said. “Only time will tell.”

Breeding and risk assessment are long-term processes in the Christmas tree industry, as it takes most of a decade for a tree to become harvestable or to produce cones.

Breeding better trees

The Westwinds Farm near Dallas, Oregon, was founded by Brown and is now operated by his son, Bryan Brown. Its seed orchard is now largely focused on improving Nordmann and Turkish firs.

“What we’re trying to do is choose the best genetics and cross them,” Bryan Brown said. “A lot of the time it’s just throwing things against the wall, but sometimes that’s how it happens in the real world.”

The farmers are confident betting on the future of these species due to their combination of aesthetic beauty and agronomic hardiness.

Noble firs are also championed for their visual appeal, but many farmers can’t grow them due to their susceptibility to root rot and need for a 1,000-foot-plus elevation.

“I think the Nordmann and the Turkish are going to be a growing part of the marketplace over time,” Bryan Brown said, noting that they’re also desirable for insect resistance. “We’ve not needed to spray since we’ve had the Turkish and the Nordmann.”

Within America’s 172,000-acre Christmas tree industry, which generates more than $350 million in annual sales, the Black Sea species are still relatively minor players.

Nordmann firs are grown on about 7,000 acres and generate $15 million in sales, while production of Turkish and trojan firs isn’t specified in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2019 Census of Horticultural Specialties.

However, Nordmann and Turkish firs have gained a solid foothold in Oregon, the biggest Christmas tree-growing state in the nation.

More than 250,000 trees of the two species worth $9 million were sold by Oregon farmers last year.

The two species, which are grouped together in a 2020 USDA report on Oregon’s industry, are in third place behind noble firs and Douglas firs.

They are a distant third, though.

About 1.7 million noble fir trees worth $65 million were sold last year, while Douglas firs generated sales of 1.4 million trees and $29 million.

Nordmann and Turkish firs still have a lot of catching up to do, but growers say they’ve got momentum behind them while noble and Douglas firs face headwinds.

Changing the mix

Noble Mountain Tree Farm, a major grower near Salem, historically devoted about 6% of its production to Nordmann and Turkish firs, compared to 50% for noble firs and 40% for Douglas firs.

Now, the share of Nordmann and Turkish firs has risen to about 30% while Douglas firs have slid to 20% and noble firs have remained stable, said Bob Schaefer, the company’s general manager.

A major factor in the change is the “keepability” of Nordmann and Turkish firs, which are easier for people to maintain after harvest, he said. That’s particularly crucial for trees that are exported to warm climates.

“They hold their needles like iron. It’s a very consumer-desirable tree,” Schaefer said. “You can abuse it as a consumer and not have to worry about it losing all its needles. Most consumers don’t do a very good job of caring for the tree once it’s in the house.”

Demand for Nordmann and Turkish firs is rising year over year among buyers, whose demand for Douglas firs is eroding, Schaefer said. Meanwhile, Christmas tree acreage is feeling the squeeze from expanding hazelnut production in Oregon.

“The popularity of Douglas fir is continuing to diminish, so what are we going to replace it with?” he said.

That’s not to say the native tree should be counted out yet.

Compared to Douglas firs, the Black Sea species don’t grow as quickly — which means farmers must wait longer for a return on their investment. The three newer cultivars also don’t emit the coniferous scent that many consumers associate with the holidays.

“It’s kind of a deal breaker for people who want that traditional Christmas smell,” said Kristi Scholz-O’Leary of the Snowshoe Evergreen farm in Orting, Washington.

Another potential hindrance is the tendency of Nordmann and Turkish firs to break bud early, making the new shoots vulnerable to frost, said Dan Kintigh of Kintigh’s Mountain Home Ranch near Springfield.

“That’s a disaster out here because the new growth will freeze and make a mess out of the tree,” Kintigh said, adding that he’s mitigated the problem by breeding Turkish firs to break bud later.

Since some consumers seem “stuck” on noble firs, the staple species isn’t going anywhere soon, he said. “If you’ve got really good noble ground, you’re probably going to keep growing noble.”

Even so, production of Nordmann and Turkish firs will likely overtake noble firs next year at the Brooks Tree Farm, a conifer nursery near Salem, said owner Kathy LeCompte.

A major reason for the shift is that Noble firs need a higher elevation, which isn’t an option for many farmers, she said. The tree species from around the Black Sea are more tolerant of heat and soil moisture.

“We needed something that grew in a wider range,” LeCompte said.

The nursery has also begun experimenting with trojan firs. While LeCompte said she has “high hopes” for the species, it’s not certain to gain the same level of acceptable as the other Black Sea cultivars.

“Do growers really want a third species that’s very similar?” she asked. “Does it have some features the others don’t?”

There was once a great deal of enthusiasm for a tree variety known as Canaan, which was a cross between Fraser and balsam firs, LeCompte said. However, the two species crossed in such a narrow geographic range that seed production was insufficient for commercial production.

“There have been other trees that were new and interesting that never panned out,” she said.

Trojan tests

Researchers from OSU and other universities collected trojan fir seeds in Turkey a decade ago and have since been testing their progeny.

High-quality specimens were grafted onto rootstock at OSU’s seed orchard in Aurora, where they will be used to produce seed once they’ve matured enough.

Landgren, OSU Extension’s Christmas tree specialist, said he was quickly impressed with the species.

“It turned out it was one of the fastest-growing exotic trees we’ve tested,” Landgren said. “We haven’t seen any downside — except deer like to eat them.”

His appreciation for trojan firs deepened after the “heat dome” that brought temperatures of 116 degrees Fahrenheit to Oregon’s Willamette Valley in June.

“These trees have hardly seen any damage from the heat dome,” Landgren said, adding that some noble firs at the seed orchard were visibly harmed.

Growers view the Black Sea species as a niche, but that may not always be the case, he said. “If we keep having heat domes, that may be different.”

Judy Kowalski, an OSU bioscience researcher, noted that trojan firs are so durable that one even survived being backed over by an excavator at the seed orchard.

“It pretty much crushed it, and it’s doing OK,” she said. “They’re tough.”

Snowshoe Evergreen is growing 3,500 trojan firs as part of an experiment but hasn’t yet seen the trees distinguish themselves from the other Black Sea cultivars, said Ken Scholz, the company’s founder.

“It’s hard for us to know the difference between the three species,” he said.

“They’re so closely related, it’s difficult for even a trained eye to tell.”

The experiment is nonetheless worthwhile, since finding trees that are broadly adaptable is a worthwhile goal for the industry, said Kristi Scholz-O’Leary, his daughter.

“It just means more Christmas trees for more people,” she said.