Dry weather the last two seasons has challenged Christmas tree production in Alabama. Jeremy Pickens, Alabama assistant Extension professor in horticulture at Auburn University, believes more producers will start implementing irrigation systems in the future as a result.
“Most farms don’t have irrigation set up. There’s a few that do. I think we’ll probably see more of it in the near future,” Pickens said. “I guess it was probably 10 or 15 years ago Auburn did a trial, and we didn’t really see any benefit. It was only one year of research, but it could have been just a good year for rain, whereas we’ve had several years where we’ve been in drought situations. That’s definitely impacted some of those trees.”
Pickens is conducting fertilizer trials research which also allow the added benefit of irrigation research since the applications are conducted through fertigation.
“A lot (of growers) within the state of Alabama lost first-year trees from that drought. We didn’t, ours grew very well because we had drip irrigation. We planted late; really bad scenario as far as planting late and it being an extremely hot year. Our trees were growing very well while people were losing trees. That in itself is pretty good demonstration of the benefit of installing those systems,” Pickens said. “Some of these guys are putting out fertilizer by hand. At the end of the day, a five-gallon bucket is pretty heavy when you walk across a few acres throwing out fertilizer. We’re trying to show some of the benefits that offset that cost of installing some of that drip.”
By Clint Thompson