The Real Christmas Tree Board

Work done to increase the availability of Virginia pine seed to the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association through work carried out by the Texas A&M Forest Service using funding provided by the Real Christmas Tree Board during the 2019 – 2022 period has been successful. Short-term seed production from the TFS seed orchard at Magnolia Springs (MSSO) in 2022 was supplemented from a harvest made possible by cleanup and resurrection of a Virginia pine progeny test on TCTGA member property. This work is timely as the 2022 flower crop observed at this and other properties, including the TFS orchard, indicates that the 2023 harvest should be a bumper crop. The long-term availability of improved Virginia pine seed was made possible by work done to expand the TFS MSSO seed orchard. Seedlings were successfully transplanted and grow in an expansion block, that if successfully grafted, will double the size of the current orchard. Despite setbacks due to hot, dry growing conditions and animal predation, a high percentage of seedlings are ready for grafting during the winter of 2022-23.