Farm glossary
The terms you meet on farm websites and in our guides, in plain language. Definitions follow UNH, Penn State, NC State and Oregon State extension usage.
- Shearing
- Annual cutting of new growth to increase density and hold the conical shape until harvest. Usually begins when firs and spruces reach 4-5 ft (pines at 3 ft); anything outside an imaginary cone gets cut back.
- Culturing
- The umbrella term for everything that shapes a tree: shearing, leader trimming, basal pruning. A farm tree's dense look is culture, not nature.
- Leader
- The single topmost vertical shoot. Growers trim it to 8-12 inches a year to control height and density; competing buds are removed so the tree keeps one clean top for the star.
- Whorl
- A ring of branches emerging at the same level on the trunk; one whorl is roughly one year's growth. Even 8-10 inch spacing between whorls marks a well-grown tree.
- Basal pruning
- Removing the lowest branches up to a full whorl, creating a clear "handle" of trunk for the stand.
- Baling
- Compressing a cut tree and wrapping it in netting or twine so it ships and carries without branch damage. Leave the netting on until the tree is in the stand.
- Tree shaker
- A machine that vibrates the cut tree to shake out dead interior needles (and the occasional surprised spider) before it goes in your car.
- Flocking
- Spraying a tree with an adhesive fiber mix to imitate snow. Flocked trees are usually rejected by recycling programs.
- Cull
- A tree of sellable size made unsellable by defects. Farms typically grade about two-thirds of a harvest as first quality.
- Choose-and-cut (u-cut)
- The retail model where you pick a standing tree in the field and cut it (or have it cut) yourself. The freshness clock starts at the saw.
- Wholesale grower
- A farm that cuts, bales and ships trees in volume to retail lots rather than selling on-farm.
- Tagging
- Reserving a standing tree in early-to-mid November by hanging a tag with your name, then returning to cut it closer to Christmas.
- Stump culture
- Cutting the tree knee-high and training a retained branch as the next leader: repeat harvests from one root system every 4-5 years for decades.
- Needle retention
- How well a species holds needles after cutting. Fraser fir and Scotch pine excel; Norway spruce does not.
- Taper
- A tree's width-to-height proportion. The industry standard crown is about two-thirds as wide as the tree is tall; many farm trees run wider, up to 80%.
Sources: UNH Extension: pruning and shearing · Penn State Extension: tree production · NC State Extension: starting a choose-and-cut · UC ANR: stump culture