Talk to your county ag. extension office. They will have the statistics, and can probably connect you with people in your area. My understanding, from a friend who does this in VT, is that it take about 4-10 years for a tree to get to a useful size, but there may be new varieties out there that grow faster. Be aware, it's not just a matter of planting and waiting for the harvest - you have to shape the trees a couple of times a year, fertilize them, keep the surroundings mowed, do your advertising, build your hut, etc., etc. But it's also a lot less effort than a lot of other crops.

Roberta, I've just thought - try posting the question on the Farm Life Forum. It's much more farm oriented than garden. (They DO call them Christmas Tree FARMS, after all!) I bet you get a lot more answers there.

theres a lot of tree farms around here but they mostly wholesale. i dont know of any that do the hay ride etc. thing. the weather is kinda cold for that for most people in december.
but people who do that with pumpkins do very well.

My family had a tree farm for about 30 years. It takes about 6-10 years to get harvestable trees. Our farm was in a very remote area and we didn't live there. We would go up 4 days a year, THAT'S IT!!! Once to plant, once to trim and mark the trees for harvesting in the fall (this could always change, of course), once for cutting and baling and then one last time for loading onto trucks. We never fertilized or watered, rarely sprayed (only if there was a SEVERE infestation of a damaging pesk) and, because my father preferred the natural look of trees to the artificial perfect cone shape, the trimming was quite easy. It was a very fun family project. My dad would get frustrated with deer eating the trees, but that was the biggest problem we had. When that happened you just let the tree keep growing and then cut it when it was 12' tall and cut off the bottom 5' where the deer had stripped it. If you are to do this you will want to pay special attention to which varieties are up and coming in consumer interest. Right now Douglas Firs are the hot thing but Concolor Firs are not as well known but I think they will be more popular once the general population catches on to this great tree. Got to run now, I will be glad to try to answer anymore questions you have later on...

We have a tree farm for the past 25 years. What I suggest is also check out the National tree farm organization and state organization. When my husband first started growing trees we belonged to both. Also went to the conferences. They are so valuable. Ours is just a hobby. My husband spends months worrying about trees. how many to order, when to plant, when to mow. Is it going to snow, which means does he have to get out with the snow blower to make paths so people can cut their own trees. He loves it. One of the big expenses is the equipment. You need tractors to cut the grass. chain saws to cut the trees, we have a trimmer to help him sharp the trees and if any of this equipment breaks do you have back up of do you know how to fix it. Otherwise, you might have to wait weeks to get your machine back. valuable time. contact one of the above web sites they can help.
He is lucky to have a full time job that allows him to spend the time he needs to maintain the trees.

Hi Roberta,

I foudn this thread rather late as I was looking for something else, but thought I would share a little info with you.

Our neighbors have a very large cut your own tree farm that has all the bells and whistles. Both of my teens have worked there during the season and I've gotten to know the owners very well. They don't charge for the wagon rides, reindeer, vist with Mrs. Claus, etc., but it is built into the cost of the trees. They will tell you right up front that their trees aren't the cheapest in the area but that they provide a lot besides the tree. The team of horses that they rent to pull the wagons cost $1500 per day. Yes, $1500 per day! That's a lot of trees just to cover your horses!

The first thing that they will say about their operation is that you really need to work at it all the time. They actually sold the business on contract at one point and moved out of state, but the buyer did not put much effort into the business and eventually defaulted on the contract. They came back and have the place running better than ever.

In the last few years, they started growing other trees for landscaping to balance the seasonality of the Christmas trees. That foresight will serve them well as this past year was the worst season in recent history. I've heard this from them as well as two other owners of cut-your-own farms. The rain that we had in early December really hurt sales this year.

Also keep in mind that your busiest times will be the weekends from Thanksgiving to Christmas. My kids both enjoyed their jobs, especially because it was a great way for them to make a fair amount of money in a relatively short time, but they did find out that they had to sacrifice doing other things because of working all those weekends.

Hope this information helps!

V.