The Great Canadian Farm Tour got into the festive spirit today by visiting a Christmas tree farm in Prince Edward Island!
Bryce Drummond, who co-owns and operates Drummond’s Christmas Tree Farm, showed us where and how they grow Balsam firs for the holiday season.
Here are some fun facts we learned during the tour:
- A Waiting Game: Growing a Christmas tree takes an average of 8 to 12 years! Most trees are about seven and a half feet tall when they’re sold during the holiday season. Drummond’s Christmas Tree Farm plants about 1,000 trees a year!
- Lots of Hard Work: Farming Christmas trees is very labour-intensive. They plant the seedlings, shear the trees, apply fertilizer and mow between the rows by hand. The only machine used on their farm is a chainsaw for cutting down the trees!
- Environmental Benefits: Real Christmas trees are more environmentally friendly than artificial Christmas trees. Used Christmas trees can be taken to farms for goats to eat (they can be used as a natural dewormer for goats and sheep!), used as windbreaks around PEI or composted. Did you know one acre of Christmas trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people? Drummond’s Christmas Tree Farm has 12 acres of Balsam firs, that’s enough oxygen for 216 people!
- No Bears in PEI: The biggest pest on the farm is ants. They can kill a Christmas tree within a year!
We had so much fun learning about Christmas tree farming with students from across Canada! If you missed the tour, catch the recording here: WATCH THE TOUR
The next stop of the Great Canadian Farm Tour Season 4 is on Wednesday, November 20 at noon ET. We are visiting the most northern commercial greenhouse in North America in the Northwest Territories! You can register for that tour here: REGISTER FOR THE TOUR
Thank you to Farm Credit Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for supporting the Great Canadian Farm Tour!