A Cut Above the Rest : Tree Farms: Some serious growers and hobbyists are keeping the industry going in California to meet the demand of consumers who like to choose and cut their own tree for Christmas.

Urban life is encroaching on Bob and Lorie Sturrock’s Christmas tree farm on San Dimas Canyon Road in San Dimas. Busy Foothill Boulevard nearby is a constant reminder. Of late, a couple of developers have come calling to state the obvious--the land is a lot more valuable for planting houses than trees.

Thus far the Sturrocks have not been moved. “We live here on the farm. It’s pretty nice to have our own piece of green here,” Lorie Sturrock said recently. Moreover, it is her career. She runs the farm year-round while Bob tends to his job selling thread to the garment industry. He helps out in his spare time, and most of the 12 children and 22 grandchildren pop up from time to time during the busy Christmas season to help with customers.

For the 28th year in a row it is business as usual for the Sturrocks who--within just a few weeks--get to see if the labor that they put in all year pays off.

About 500 other growers in California have been going through some of the same routines since Thanksgiving. While the vast majority of trees sold in California are grown elsewhere, a small group of serious growers and part-time hobbyists have kept a farming industry going in California for generations.

California’s contribution to the nation’s industry is the “choose-and-cut” farm, a marketing innovation begun in the Santa Cruz mountains more than 40 years ago, according to the tree growers association. The farms allow consumers to select and cut their own trees or tag a tree for farm workers to cut for later pickup.

In recent years, more California consumers have become enamored with the idea of choosing their trees directly from the source, according to the trade group. This year, the association estimates, more than a million Californians will cut their own trees.

Mike and Dawn Hansen of Lakewood were on their first visit to a Christmas tree farm on a recent warm afternoon.

“Last year, we saw one at our neighbor’s house,” Dawn Hansen said while searching the Lakewood Pines farm in Lakewood. “We thought it was so nice, so we decided we would get one this year.”

Urbanites don’t always have to travel great distances to cut trees. Dozens of farms operate close to housing developments and shopping centers in Southern California. Many are on public utility rights of way. They are able to lease the transmission line corridors because no buildings are allowed near the power lines.

Those locations are the only economical sites for growing trees in Southern California because land that can be developed for buildings commands premium prices, said Bob Jones, president of the tree growers association. “There’s no way you can buy land in that location and grow Christmas trees,” said Jones, who operates a 150-acre wholesale tree farm and three smaller choose-and-cut farms in Northern California.

The Sturrocks are among the few in Southern California who own their 14 acres, but the land was bought in 1961 before land prices skyrocketed. They have about 12,000 trees on seven of the acres, Lorie Sturrock said.

A lot of growers in Southern California have sold out to developers over the years, said Rich DeRosa, who leases public land near power lines for his Grand Avenue Tree Farm in Glendora. DeRosa, a high school social studies teacher, is typical of many in the industry who turned to tree farming for extra income. He says he got the idea from a friend he met at a high school reunion in 1979 who was a gardener selling trees on the side.

DeRosa said he attended lots of seminars sponsored by the tree growers association. “We were warned that it wouldn’t be easy,” he said. “Weeds grow all the time. They have to be (removed by hand). There are pine top moths, and other pests are a constant problem. Water lines break--fun things like that. Trees aren’t terribly easy to grow. It takes a lot of time. We spend about $2,000 a year on this farm,” he said.

Jim Heyne, who operates three farms with partners, can attest to the threat of pests. “We fumigated this whole area,” Heyne said recently, pointing to a large section of their 8-acre Lakewood Pines farm. “We had a lot of trouble with yellowing. We brought out the county agricultural agent who advised us to fumigate,” he said. The problem turned out to be fungus and the nematode, a common plant parasite, he said.

For their labors--which include constant irrigation and continuous delicate trimming of trees to produce the most attractive conical shape--and a substantial up-front cash outlay, beginning growers won’t have a marketable crop for at least three to four years. The time that it takes to grow a tree depends on the species and whether you begin with seeds or seedlings, growers said. And growers have to carefully calculate the number of trees to plant per acre (allowing for a certain number of trees that will be lost to pests and other causes) to make the operation economical.

In Southern California, growers tend to plant more trees per acre because their land costs are higher, said Sharon Burke, executive director of the tree growers association. But one can plant trees only so close together, Heyne said. “Our trees are planted on a diagonal that is 4 1/2 feet across between trees,” he said. Heyne said he normally has about 1,200 to 1,500 trees per acre.

Growing trees has its rewards, said DeRosa. “I always have a tan and I’m sure it’s helped me to be healthy. I get a lot of exercise,” he quips. But farming hasn’t yet produced a financial windfall, he said. Nevertheless, DeRosa said he and a partner are investing proceeds from the Grand Avenue farm into another operation in Ontario.

Marketing is key for choose-and-cut farms that compete with a variety of conveniently located retail Christmas tree lots and nurseries, and most recently grocers and other chain stores. Although chain stores are new to the market, the tree growers association said they have grabbed a big part of the market in a few short years. Some retail lots offer extra services like flocking and flame retarding.

Competition is tough because “there’s an oversupply of Christmas trees in the lower grades,” said Jones. But growers who have premium trees have a “pretty firm market,” he added. “People who have the worst ups and downs are those that usually have a bad location,” he said.