Drought Kills Evergreens, but Not Christmas

By Rachel Martin

October 21, 2012 Updated Oct 21, 2012 at 11:56 PM EDT

FORT WAYNE, Ind.. (www.incnow.tv) – It might be a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but not for the owner of St. Joe Tree Farm who says the summer drought affected his tree crop.

On Sunday, Mike Reifenberg and his crew were out planting 500 seedlings. Because of the drought this summer, Reifenberg lost 2,000 of his 25,000 evergreen trees.

He says it takes about seven to 10 years until evergreens are ready to harvest, so Reifenberg says he's getting a head start.

“It won't have any impact this year because all the existing trees did alright. In about seven years or so we may be short a little, but maybe they'll just be a little bit shorter than we would've hoped. But, we might get some better growing seasons in there. Maybe we'll catch up and get a little bit more growth,” he said.

Reifenberg says don't worry, there will be plenty of healthy Christmas trees to choose from when they open the day after Thanksgiving.




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