P.E.I.'s Christmas tree supply remains strong despite summer drought

Despite the the dry summer P.E.I. experienced this year, Island Christmas tree farms will have enough stock to go around.

Nancy Smith, who runs the Emyvale Ranch on Kingston Road with her husband, said that the lack of rain this summer meant their balsam fir trees were growing a little slower than usual.

But when fall came around, so did the rain they needed.

"When we were having the drought and it was really super hot, we were very concerned," she said.

"But as the colder temperatures came in, and the rain comes in, the trees seemed to suck up that moisture, so we're happy [with] the way they look right now. But we still had our losses."

Smith said while this season looks promising, she does have concerns about the future.

Some of the ranch's newer trees are a lighter green than they should be, and some are dying in just their first or second year of growth.

"I was just checking [last year's seedlings] and you know, say if we planted 100, we may have like easy 10 that they're quite brown."

P.E.I. isn't the only province seeing losses on Christmas tree farms due to the summer drought.

The Red-Robin Christmas tree farm in New Brunswick saw losses of 80 to 90 per cent of the 1,300 seedlings that were planted in May.

Gerald Redmond of Red-Robin Christmas tree farm in Keswick Ridge said that this year he has many mature trees for customers — but that could change in the next few years.

“It'll be interesting if I'm still kicking around in eight years, you know, I may be dealing with a problem of a lack of trees, you know, in the seven or eight-foot range.”

Back on P.E.I., Drummond's Christmas tree farm also lost seedlings planted this spring. Bryce Drummond is a co-owner of the farm.

"The ones I did plant this year, I would say there would be 30 to 40 per cent mortality on them."