Learn About Growing Christmas Trees In Indiana

(BLOOMINGTON) – Want to learn about growing Christmas trees in Indiana – Check out this webinar.

IU Associate Professor James Farmer

Indiana University Associate Professor James Farmer, and the co-director of IU Campus Farm, will present his research on Indiana Christmas tree growers and consumers during a webinar at 1 p.m. Dec. 8.

Professor Farmer will discuss the challenges of an increasingly competitive marketplace as well as the surprising opportunity it presents for local farmers to add Christmas trees as a low-maintenance, high-value crop to their operations.

Christmas tree farms across the country are experiencing a decline in sales as consumers have increasingly turned to artificial trees that are mostly imported from China. The National Christmas Tree Association reports that U.S. consumers have been choosing artificial trees over real trees by 2 to 1 margin (NCTA 2015). The national decline in live tree market share has had a significant impact on Indiana Christmas tree growers. The number of Indiana Christmas tree farms with sales declined by 40% between 2002 and the last Census in 2012, and the number of Christmas trees harvested in Indiana has declined by 55% since 2007.

The webinar is presented by the Indiana Uplands Food Network