KLTV 7 News Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |Drought In East Texas Affects Some Christmas Tree Farms

Drought In East Texas Affects Some Christmas Tree Farms

East Texas Christmas tree farms and lots opened this weekend.  Many of you will end up buying a tree shipped in from other states, but some trees are grown right here in East Texas. Tree farms say there are still a lot of trees, but the recent drought is going to require you to be more careful this year.  

Jimmy Burks, his wife, Amanda, and their two-year-old daughter, Kallie, took advantage of the warm weather Saturday and came out to Plantation Pines Farm in Smith County to find that perfect Christmas tree.  

"The last few years we went to a regular tree, something on the side of the road and the trees didn't seem to last as long.  So we came here last year and our tree lasted all the way until January 1st," said Jimmy.

Nancy Wiggins and her husband own Plantation Pines Farm.  They say the lack of rain affected some of their trees.  "The main thing that we've noticed was the trimming," said Nancy.  "We do it twice in the summer and the second time we really didn't need to. We have noticed some of our baby trees that we planted in January were hurt."  

Wiggins says the larger trees are fine, but will need more care.  "We're just making sure to remind them (customers) there was a drought this summer, not a lot of water, and they will require a lot of water this year," said Wiggins. 

Dixon Farms has sold trees in Tyler for 23 years. Its trees are from Oregon, North Carolina and Tyler.  "We didn't have a problem with the drought because our trees that we have are 15 years old," said  Dixon Farms owner Royce Wisenbaker. "If somebody were to start a farm, say two or three years ago they wouldn't have any growth this year and their trees would be shorter."

The Burks family found a big tree, one they say they are very happy with.  "Maybe next year my daughter will be able to cut her first tree down," said Jimmy. 

Both Plantation Pines Farm and Dixon Farms say the busiest days are the first and second weekends in December. Dixon Farms says it usually runs out of trees by December 15th.

Molly Reuter, Reporting. mreuter@kltv.com