TOMAHAWK, Wis. (WJFW) –The Northwoods are home to many Christmas tree growers who help make the holidays a special time of year. But only a few places have the capacity to grow this Christmas staple from seed to finish.

Richard Lodholz is one of the few people who has been growing Christmas trees since the beginning.

The whole process begins in the fall, with just a few seeds.

“Usually what I do is I portion everything out and then I put it in a colander.” Lodholz said: “I’m shaking it. And then I select all the needles or any pitch that I get.

The seeds are then placed inside a machine that transports them from a trey, down a tube, and then into a polystyrene container.

“Here we shoot like I say three to seven seeds per hole.” Lodholz said: “The germination rate of these trees is about 20 percent. »

It takes a few weeks to go from seed to seedling as the germination process takes effect.

“Our fir forest that we are currently sowing, greenhouse number three, can hold up to 240,000 trees.” Said Lodholz

The process of caring for the plants is ongoing to ensure they emerge from their shells.

“We generally check the trees every day to make sure they are germinating after we sow them. We need to water them every day to ensure they have the moisture needed for the trees to germinate.

After germination, Lodholz works through the trees to ensure there is only one per hole in the Styrofoam blocks. Each container will then contain 240 trees each.

“Christmas tree growers, on the other hand, don’t put them in the container unless they retransplant them themselves.” Lodholz said, “They tend to buy our older grafts. »

The greenhouses are emptied in the spring when the newly grown trees are large enough to survive the elements.

The trees will then grow from a few inches to more than a foot tall, before being sold to Christmas tree farms throughout the region. After 10 more years of growth, they are ready to be harvested and enter the homes of Northwoods residents.