Christmas trees are shaping up thanks to new technique

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Story Published: Jun 27, 2007 at 3:29 PM PST

By Meghan Kalkstein

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Monroe - When it comes to Christmas trees, Oregon is tops in the country. And our royal tenenbaums might be in more demand.

Oregon State University researchers have been working with a number of area growers, their goal is creating the perfect tree.

A stapler and wax paper, that's how Christmas tree grower Kirk Stroda is training his tree tops. But crafting the perfect tree top, isn't always easy.

"If left to their own the trees grow too much," says O.S.U. researcher Rick Fletcher. Which means extra labor and costs trimming or training the tree top.

"This process can cost the grower as much as 50 cents to $1 a tree," say Fletcher. So the question is, how do you get a tree to slow itself down? O.S.U. researchers say, you do it with a natural product called 'Sucker Stopper.'

"We're actually putting a little extra of its own plant growth hormone on there and it just tells it to quit growing before it normally would so instead of growing too much it'll grow just the right amount," says Fletcher.

Fletcher discovered 'Sucker Stopper' in Denmark. Now you might think that it's some top secret technology but actually it's an over the counter product you can find right here in the U.S.

"It's being used by homeowners in their backyard, to use it in Christmas trees we had to go through two years of field testing labeling we had to submit all kinds of work to EPA just to ensure it was going to be safe to use in Christmas trees," says Fletcher.

Both Stroda and Fletcher agree it's shaping up to be a win-win situation.
"If we can make this sucker stopper work we can get it down to maybe less than 20 cents a tree and 1500 trees per acre that's pretty easy math," says Stroda.

"The grower benefits the consumer benefits and the environment is protected so I think it's good for everybody as far as I can tell," says Fletcher.

The label was approved in May, but Fletcher say there's still more testing to be done.

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