11A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2016
Plants: Christmas crops are niche for Northwest farmers
Continued from Page 1A
Across the U.S., farmers sold more
than $1.3 million worth of cut conif-
erous evergreens in 2014, according
to the most recent U.S. Department
of Agriculture data. To compare, the
total value of cut Christmas trees —
the king of the holiday’s crops —
topped $366 million that year.
Despite the relatively small mar-
ket for boughs and Christmas-related
plants such as poinsettias and holly,
they provide an important niche for
Northwest growers, tapping a source
of cash flow at a time of year when
most other crops have long been
harvested.
Christmas cactuses are grown at
Fessler Nursery near Woodburn.
The plants must be covered part
of each day to make them flower.
Christmas color
Poinsettias provide a way for
greenhouse nurseries that sell flow-
ering bedding plants in springtime to
keep their employees busy during the
fall, too.
Last year, growers nationwide sold
nearly $140 million worth of potted
poinsettias, according to the USDA.
Though the plant isn’t particularly
profitable, it does provide enough rev-
enue to keep workers who might not
otherwise return from being laid off,
said Vern Johnson, owner of Johnson
Brothers Greenhouses near Eugene.
Because they’re a tropical plant,
poinsettias need more heat during the
cool months preceding Christmas,
adding to the cost of growing them,
he said.
They’re also prone to fungal dis-
ease, requiring frequent sprays and
more spacing between plants to
ensure proper air circulation.
“It’s not a bread-and-butter crop,”
said Johnson, who also produces bed-
ding plants, perennials, shrubs and
trees.
Photos by Mateusz Perkowski/EO Media Group
A worker harvests holly with red berries at Mill Creek Holly Farms near
Stayton.
Vern
Johnson,
owner of
Johnson
Brothers
Green-
houses
near
Eugene,
examines
poinsettias
growing in
one of his
green-
houses.
International crop
Poinsettias are a truly international
industry, he said.
Breeding occurs in tropical coun-
tries such as Costa Rica and Guate-
mala. Cuttings are then shipped to
large greenhouses, where they’re
rooted. The rooted poinsettias are
then sold to greenhouses such as the
Johnson Brothers operation for the
final stage of production.
Night temperatures must be kept
above 65 degrees for poinsettias,
though breeders in recent years have
turned their attention to developing
varieties that can withstand lower
temperatures, Johnson said.
“We’re loving that, because a lot
of your money goes to heating these
things,” he said.
Improved genetics in poinsettias
have also reduced the need to screen
many varieties from the sun to induce
flowering, said Kyle Peterson, pro-
duction manager at Fessler Nursery
near Woodburn.
Within the greenhouse, wires are
suspended above the crop, which is
manually covered in plastic each day
and uncovered in the morning.
“It’s quite a chore pulling that
plastic each day,” he said.
While fewer poinsettia varieties
now require this treatment, Fessler
Nursery has in recent years also
Several varieties of poinsettias
are grown at Johnson Brothers
Greenhouses near Eugene.
begun growing Christmas cactuses,
which must be covered from 4 p.m. to
8 a.m. beginning in September to ini-
tiate flowering, he said.
Despite the extra labor, Christmas
cactuses are more profitable because
they’re not as sensitive to cold and
prone to diseases as poinsettias,
Peterson said.
“They require a lot of attention,”
he said.
The nursery has dispatched an effi-
cient remedy to combat the white flies,
aphids and thrips that feast on poinset-
tias: Baskets of mullein — a common
roadside plant with leathery leaves —
are hung throughout the greenhouse.
The mullein harbors a benefi-
cial bug, dicyphus hesperus, which
eats the pests, Peterson said. “We’re
always trying to find additional ways
to reduce pesticide use.”
Holly threats
While poinsettias are finicky due
to their tropical origins, farmers also
encounter difficulties with a Christ-
mas crop that naturally thrives in the
region — holly.
The plant is vulnerable to phy-
tophthora, a genus of fungal-like
pathogens that damage it.
“There’s no cure for it. All you can
do is try to prevent it,” said Don Har-
teloo, who owns Mill Creek Holly
Farms near Stayton.
More than $1 million worth of cut
holly was sold in the U.S. in 2014,
according to the latest USDA data.
Fungicide sprays are necessary
during the rainy season, and during
summer dead leaves and other debris
are vacuumed from beneath the holly
trees to keep the disease away.
Unless a grower is aggressive in
fighting the pathogen, it can defoli-
ate and wipe out an entire orchard,
especially in a year like 2016, when
disease pressure has been high, said
Harteloo.
“It seems to be getting worse all
the time, and this seems to be a par-
ticularly bad year,” he said.
Once a healthy holly tree is estab-
lished, which takes about a decade,
branches can be cut vigorously each
year, Harteloo said.
Cutting seems to stimulate
growth, so overly zealous harvesters
have never been a problem, he said.
Harteloo and his wife, Sue, sell
their holly to wholesale buyers. They
also make wreaths and other decora-
tions, which are sold online.
Most buyers want red ber-
ries on their holly and prefer varie-
gated cultivars with leaves that have
cream-colored edges, Sue Harteloo
said.
To prevent leaves and berries
from falling off after harvest, the
branches are dipped in a rare plant
hormone, Don Harteloo said.
“It’s very expensive. A thousand
dollars a gallon,” he said.
Harvest by shotgun
The Harteloos also sell “kissing
balls” that incorporate mistletoe, a
parasitic plant that infects oak trees.
A farmer near Silverton has
enough mistletoe growing wild on his
property to supply their yearly needs.
“It doesn’t take much to go a long
ways,” Harteloo said.
The mistletoe is collected using
ladders or shears on long poles, but
when it’s particularly inaccessible,
Harteloo resorts to firearms.
“You can shoot it down, usually
with a shotgun,” he said.
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