A36-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 23. 2000 Grower Grooms (Continued from Pago At) said Shealer on a recent visit to his farm. The trees are located in one patch that Shealer, extension di rector for Carbon County, was “saving to put together for a seed orchard.” He joked to family and friends about the patch that “I’d put a tree in the White House someday,” said Shealer. “’Oh, yeah,’ some would say. But I groomed that tree for 6- 7 years just to put in the White House.” In 2000, Shealer won the grand champion tree at the Farm Show in Harrisburg. That allowed him to qualify for com petition at the National Christ mas Tree Growers Association Convention in Rochester, N.Y. In August, Shealer submitted his best tree and won at the con test. “I’ve never competed at the national level,” he said. Shealer won a grand champion at the Farm Show in 1992, but be cause the national show was in Spokane, Wash, that year, the distance prevented Shealer from entering. “I enjoy competing with my trees,” Shealer said. He grows several just to obtain that handful of “geneti cally superior speci mens. “They get extra care,” he said. “They’re fertilized separately, they’re hand-sheared and butt-pruned.” Shealer uses a com mercial or specially made fertilizer mix de pending on soil test recommendations, ap plied every spring and fall. He soil tests every three years. Shealer believes in an all-in, all-cut man agement strategy on each of the 50 acres in production. Instead of cutting select trees, all trees are taken at once to keep the fields clean, disease-free, and to ensure maxi mum fertility. In the spring, a preemergcnt herbicide is used to keep annual weeds down. In the fall, a post program takes care of all peren nial weeds. The farm’s hills in clude a Berks shaley loam with good drain age. Shealer had to weather the 1999 drought, which led to the deaths of hundreds of new seedlings. But fortunately, not as many trees had to be replaced as Shealer first suspected. This year growing conditions were ideal. An irrigation well in stalled in May 2000 wasn’t needed. Shealer grows trees from 5 feet to 18 feet in height. They include Douglas, Fraser, and concolor firs, Norway Spruce, Colorado Blue Spruce, Canaan Fir, White Pine, and Scotch Pine. About 75- 80 percent of all tree sales are Fraser or Douglas firs. Shealer sells mostly wholesale and some retail. Retail sales are at the barn. The cut trees are placed on strand-straight boards in a pin. Customers arrive from all over southeast Pennsylvania, including West Chester, Ches ter, Fleetwood, Leesport, and Reading. Shealer also sells trees to a re tailer in Staten Island, N.Y. The herbicide program is careful to keep weed pressure low. “If I had to grow trees in weeds, 1 wouldn’t want to grow them,” Shealer said. One tree had three feet of Get $3O Cash Back on each Spirit 2 watt radio, $2O Cash Back on each Spirit 1 watt radio purchased Oct. 1 - Dec. 31,2000. There is a limit of 6 rebates oer c Communication Solution MOTOROLA Professional Two-Way Radios jpAiu n \\- ■ 10% OFF During Our Year-End Sale Dec. 26-30 See Lancaster Farming Cow Cam Visit our Website at www.lancasterfarming.com Two-Way Radios That Are Built For Business • Durable and weather resistant • Uses business frequency • Up to 5 miles outdoors and up to 20 floors of 250,000 sq ft indoors 50 Woodcorner Road Lititz, PA 17543 (717) 738-7350 growth in one season. Shealer said two challenges include deer, which destroy trees either by eating or “buck rub bing,” and outright theft of trees. He lost 75 trees in one night to theft. The farm is on constant police patrol. Shealer knows of one grower who lost 3,000 Fraser fir trees by deer browsing. “We hunted very hard here,” he said. “We kill a lot of deer in season.” The buck rub can be particu larly damaging, because many trees won’t recover. In Carbon County alone, growers lost 8,000 trees to deer damage. j* s■> < * ■** •*'. ' '• , 'W.. ’ v-V * , ,'*& * V '*." ,■* * ?■$ This year’s growing season has promoted trees to grow up to three feet on the main stem. Automatic Headgate Finished with a zinc rich undercoat & TGIC polyester topcoat > ,v ! /- Advantages: • Durable 2 coat finish that stands up to daily use. • Full roof cover for outdoor protection. • Heavy duty latch for positive locking. • Double linkage for extra stability. • Fast, easy adjustments to match animal size & neck size from 5” to 7” • Handle for manual operation for slow or horned cattle. h»f« ■* %j • , <s>» & w '* _, 5 s ' > i*| matt ha**^ s "!, -i ",11 /*■ ~, i . «•;
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