With tradi­tion and tech­nology from seedlings to Christmas trees

At the end of November in Holger Strübbe’s yard in Lotte, Northern Germany, it’s all about selling and ship­ping Christmas trees. As you approach the busi­ness, a storage area on your right has thou­sands of Christmas trees wrapped in smart white nets leaning against each other and jutting into the sky. The storage area hums with hustle and bustle. Workers use a conveyor behind a large green and yellow tractor to fill special pallets which fit precisely into a lorry’s cargo space. Four-wheel-drive loaders trans­port the pallets to the nearby yard, where they are either stored temporarily or loaded straight onto lorries.

The depot itself is also as busy as a beehive. Another John Deere tractor, equipped with a grip­ping arm and a giant trailer, is constantly bringing in newly wrapped Christmas trees and unloading them. The workers imme­di­ately start to sort the trees, pick orders, and place them on the pallets. Lorries and smaller trans­port vehi­cles arrive, receive their cargo, and depart again. In amongst all of this, there is a steady stream of private customers who want to buy a Christmas tree.

Lord over all the hustle and bustle is Holger Strübbe, the owner of the busi­ness. When he’s not out and about on the exten­sive site speaking to a customer or staff member, he can usually be found in his spacious office. This is inte­grated into a machine hall full of special devices for growing Christmas trees. But even in his office, he’s besieged by customers wanting his advice or to pay for a tree, or staff members who want to know what to do next. Nonethe­less, Holger takes time out to speak to us about his busi­ness and how Christmas trees are grown and sold.

Holger Strübbe (r) with his long-time foreman Robert, in front of Christmas trees ready for sale.

It takes 10 years on average for the seedlings to become Christmas trees ready for sale.

Inten­sive main­te­nance work is required in the mean­time.

Special machines are required to set up and care for the Christmas trees.

From a mixed farm to a fir tree specialist

“The farm was first mentioned in docu­ments under the Strübbe name in 1344,” Holger explains. However, his father was the first to turn the busi­ness to Christmas trees. He quickly settled on the Nord­mann Fir, which finds very favourable growing condi­tions in the surrounding area. Since then, the char­acter of the busi­ness has funda­men­tally changed, from a mixed farm typical of the region with cows, pigs and arable farming, to a pure forestry busi­ness. With 15 perma­nent employees and 40 seasonal workers, the busi­ness grows and sells Nord­mann Firs across almost 150ha. It also carries out contract forestry work.

The first steps in setting up a new Christmas tree plan­ta­tion are to analyse the soil and assess the need for nutri­ents. This infor­ma­tion serves as a basis for a fertiliser regime to create optimal condi­tions for little Christmas tree seedlings. The young plants come from the finest tree nurs­eries and are planted on the prepared areas at three-to-four years of age, by GPS-assisted planting machines. Depending on the layout of the area, up to 6000 trees can fit on one hectare.

It then takes around eight to 12 years for the seedlings to become mature Christmas trees, during which they require inten­sive care. “In the fourth year we perform what we call a ‘trunk cut’ to remove the trees’ lower branches. This allows us to work more easily with our machines between the tree rows and improves airflow, which reduces pres­sure from algae and fungi,” explains Holger. The next step is to carry out a basic cut, which ensures that the tree will grow symmet­ri­cally. In the following years, the trees are then regu­larly cut to ensure an end product that’s compact and elegant.

Harvest by quality levels

As early as summer, all the Christmas trees are marked with coloured quality labels of classes A, B, C and D, to guar­antee a simple harvest, sorted by quality levels, and to make sure that sales go smoothly.

In late autumn, all Nord­mann Firs on the plan­ta­tion are checked for the upcoming harvest, which begins in November. Trees which are harvested early serve mostly as advent deco­ra­tions, while those felled later are intended for sale as Christmas trees. “There is a customer trend towards buying and putting up Christmas trees earlier,” notes Holger.

After felling, the trees remain in the field for one or two days to mature. The actual harvest is then carried out by expe­ri­enced workers with the help of the latest machines. This makes it possible to put batches together to meet whole­sale customers’ specific require­ments.

Orders are picked at the storage area with the help of a palletiser.

Four-wheel drive loaders bring the pallets from the storage area to the depot.

At the depot, the pallets are loaded onto lorries.

A broad customer base to reduce risk

Holger prefers a broad customer base and sells both to inter­me­di­aries and the general public within a radius of about 300km, to keep risk as low as possible. His resellers include farm shops, DIY shops, garden centres, and market gardens, who gener­ally collect their trees in lorries. Orders are picked according to customer wishes, which explains the lively bustle in the depot shortly before the start of advent.

Holger puts on special events for fami­lies during advent to appeal to the general public. For these, the court­yard is deco­rated festively and refresh­ments provided in the form of mulled wine and wild boar burgers, sold by Holger’s wife, and a friend who bought a mobile kiosk espe­cially. This allows fami­lies to join in the Christmas festiv­i­ties along with their chil­dren.