The holiday season brings a festive mood at Scott’s Christmas Trees in Andover with singing and a tree contest.
“We’re trying to bring the community in and that’s what we’re offering -- bringing the community and showing off the farm,” said Ryan Fitch, owner of the tree farm.
December is also a prime time for tree sales.
“It’s essential for us to be able to function all year long,” he said.
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Fitch has been growing the trees for three years at the farm. He says sustaining the business means keeping an eye on the weather like last week’s storm.
“Once the rain hit, it was bad and Monday morning when we came in, it was flooded, and we shocked at how quick it flooded,” he said.
Fitch says the flooding mainly affected a plot near the entrance where two thousand new trees had been planted. He was still able to open and sell other trees from other plots and precut ones shipped in from Canada.
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“You’re relying on the weather, and you don’t know what’s going to happen, so you just got to deal with it and not be afraid to ask for help,” he said.
That help meant getting a scientist to examine the trees. Fitch says the initial signs are promising, but has to wait and see how they do.
“We may not know until next year if the trees survived,” he said.
Fitch has experience dealing with flooding as his farm is next to the Hop River, taking advantage of the ideal soil there. Three years ago, he lost 2.000 trees during the summer due to storms, with the stagnant water attracting mosquito larvae.
“They ended up getting root rot and we didn’t know that until the following spring,” he said.
He’s working with the scientist to manage any issues from storms or other weather events. Despite the hurdles, Fitch says he hopes customers continue buying real trees for the holiday.
“It enables families like mine to be able to afford things in life and have a business,” he said.
