As most people have already picked out their Christmas trees for the holiday season, tree farmers are turning their attention to next year’s crop and hoping Mother Nature cooperates. This year’s growing season for Minnesota Christmas trees held both good and bad weather. The summer’s frequent rains helped the trees, though the area’s dry fall added more stress than usual on the plants. June was one of Minnesota’s wettest months on record with an average of almost seven inches of rain falling. But this fall, the state became abnormally dry. As of Dec. 19, 89% of the state is still experiencing some level of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor . The growing season’s mixed weather followed two other years that were very different from one another, with a relatively normal season three years ago and a drought last year. Angela McDonnell, a St. Cloud State University biology professor specializing in plants, said the variation across years and within one season can be very harmful for the farmed trees. “Plants that are not optimally healthy are going to suffer and not going to make it, so think about humans, we have some people who are less healthy than others, but we can take care of ourselves by going to see a doctor,” she said. “If each individual tree is not being continuously monitored and catered to, which is really hard… that’s going to mean that they’re more likely to just die.” Ben Wolcyn, a Christmas tree farmer and president of the Minnesota Christmas Tree Association, said he has noticed the impacts of the past few years’ wide-ranging weather on his family’s own farm in Cambridge. “The last three years, we’ve kind of seen it all,” he said. “The ups are higher and the lows are lower.” Real or […]