Drought and pests driving up Christmas tree prices for Californians

It’s the busiest weekend of the year for Christmas tree purveyors, and the many shoppers headed out to make their purchase Saturday and Sunday are in for a bit of sticker shock.

Sonoma County farmers say a combination of drought, pests and a dwindling number of local growers has taken a toll on the local supply and contributed to a rise in the retail cost of Christmas trees.

Lynn Garlock, owner of Frosty Mountain Tree Farm, said that because of the state’s prolonged drought, the trees on her farm - some planted several seasons ago - aren’t growing as quickly. This year, she had to raise prices on trees by 25 cents a foot.

In 2014, Douglas firs at her farm south of Sebastopol were going for $8.25 per foot. This year, they’re $8.50 a foot.

“The growth is definitely slower because we haven’t had the water,” she said. “Even when you’re pruning, there’s not as much growth to prune off of there.”

Most Sonoma County customers purchasing Christmas trees this season will be buying pre-cut trees sourced from Oregon and, to a lesser degree, Washington. Those trees also will be a bit pricier, for some of the same reasons.

The pre-cut trees that Garlock sells, which come from Oregon, increased in price by 8 percent, she said.

At Prickett’s Nursery, based in Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, manager Stacy Walker said the prices of their Washington Christmas trees have been increasing steadily for a few years now.

In 2012, the price of a Douglas fir in the 5-to-6-foot range would have been $29.99; now, Prickett’s is selling them for $34.99.

The taller the tree, the greater the increase. A Douglas fir in the 7-to-8-foot range in 2012 would have cost $44.99. This year, they’re $54.99.

And for trees that are typically considered more higher-end, the price difference is even greater. In 2012, an 8-to-9-foot noble fir was $149.99. Today, that price is up $40.

The drop in local supply has been a steady trend for the past decade, with tree farms going out of business or being supplanted by higher-value crops, especially wine grapes.

In 1985, farms in Sonoma County sold 43,949 Christmas trees, a crop worth $857,006, according to the county’s crop report. By 2000, the crop was down to 15,117 trees worth a total of $486,600, while last year farmers sold far fewer trees - 9,024 -but still made $487,600, reflecting the increase in the price per tree.

The price increase recently has been fueled by the drought. Some kinds of Christmas trees are more drought-tolerant than others. Firs, in general, need the most water, while pine trees are more hardy in such conditions.

Steve Schwartz, who owns Sebastopol’s Celesta Farms with his wife, Carol, grows firs, pines and other trees. With his firs, he said, there’s been a significant decline in growth, even with the irrigation system employed on his 5-acre farm.

He, too, has had to raise prices.

“We usually get about a foot of growth (a year) on our Doug firs, and on noble, about half a foot to 4 inches,” he said. “This year, the nobles didn’t budge.”

He said his Douglas firs grew only about 6 inches this year.

“We basically lost the last couple of years of growth,” he said.

Seedlings, too, are having a tough time germinating.

“We used to get about a 70 percent survival rate, so out of 10, you would have three die,” he said.

This year, he said, they planted 900 seedlings at the farm, and only 200 took hold, a 22 percent survival rate.

“We usually bring in extra trees from Oregon,” he said. “And this year we couldn’t get small tabletop trees because they aren’t selling them,” choosing instead to hold on to the supply to ensure a supply of mature trees next year.

Warmer weather - this year is shaping up to be the hottest on record - also is complicating matters for growers.

Celesta Farms is located on a ridge, and because of that and its proximity to the ocean, it usually benefits from cooler days that curb problems with pests. But this year and last year, that hasn’t been the case. While Schwartz said he doesn’t believe in pesticides, he’s been using organic oils to fend off mites and other harmful bugs, which are ravaging neighbors’ farms.

He recalled only one other year with such challenges, during a strong El Niño weather pattern, when low-lying farms in the area flooded and much of the tree crop got root rot. “This has got to be the worst (season),” he said.

His farm isn’t the only one facing pest issues.

Richard Schmitt, who owns Larsen’s Christmas Tree Farm in Petaluma, said that some of his pines have been affected by the same mite species that most other tree farmers in California are battling. They would usually die off in the winter, but because winters have been milder, they’ve held on, plaguing the warmer, south-facing sides of trees.

“It’s affecting all the farmers in California, regardless of their microclimate,” he said. “It’s an issue.”

Schmitt also cited the decline in the number of tree farms as a known price factor among growers.

“They always come in these kind of waves,” he said of price fluctuations. “They had a big glut … and now prices are going up because supply is down. … Tree prices rise because everyone quits planting.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.