The Coshocton County Beacon March 25, 2020 | Page 15
March 25, 2020
The Beacon • 15
Submitted
The Scheetz family is pictured here with former First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1996 when the family donat-
ed a 25-foot blue spruce to the Whitehouse.
Scheetz family started tree
farm nearly 60 years ago
By Josie Sellers
protect them from insects
and disease, and we have
1,800 seedlings to plant this
spring.”
The family plants
between 1,500 and 1,800
seedlings each year.
“If you are lucky, two-
thirds of them make Christ-
mas t rees bet ween deer
damage and their natural
g r ow t h ,” S ch e e t z s a id .
“Some just don’t want to be
Christmas trees. They just
want to be a bush.”
Scheetz said they limit
their growth to about a foot
a year to help control the
density and shape of the
tree.
“They are pruned each
year, and it takes eight to 10
years to get a normal-size
Christmas tree,” Scheetz
said. “It depends on the spe-
cies though. Some grow
and shape better than other
trees. It’s a guess on the
amount of Christmas trees
you’ll get and what people
will buy. What people want
over the years changes.”
T hei r biggest seller
right now is the Canaan fir.
“People like the shape and
the needle length,” Scheetz
said.
His favorite part of the
business is the selling sea-
son, which all the kids and
grandkids have helped with
over the years.
“You get to talk to people
and see their enjoyment,”
Scheetz said. “About two-
thirds of our trees are cut-
your-own. We have little
bow saws, and people take
them out to the field to cut
their own tree with their
families.”
One of the t rees even
found its way into the White-
house in 1996. The couple
entered a tree in the state fair
and won grand champion,
which made them eligible
for a national contest. After
winning the national contest,
they were eligible to donate
a tree to the Whitehouse.
Ac c ord i ng t o a Be a c on
story from 2016 celebrat-
ing the 20th anniversary
of this occasion, the family
took a 25-foot blue spruce
to Washington, D.C. The
Scheetz family was received
by former First Lady Hillary
Clinton and was able to tour
the White House.
“I like to thin k we’ve
established a name with-
i n ou r com mu nit y and
the state for having high-
quality trees at reasonable
prices,” Scheetz said. “It’s
been a joy and frustrating
at times. We’ve had some
years where we’ve had a
drought and lost a high per-
centage of our planting and
other things like that, but
you just go along with it.”
the power shop
“We service what we sell”
8am-5pm M-F
Call on Saturday
[email protected]
Kenny and Joan
Scheetz’s family business
started close to 60 years ago
almost by accident in 1962.
“We had planted the hill-
side for reforestation and
were told it was too thick
and we should thin it out,”
Kenny Scheetz said. “We
sold six Christmas trees for
a dollar and a half.”
Scheetz Tree Farm offi-
cially took off when their
children were in 4-H.
“We have two boys and
a girl, and they were in 4-H
and received 100 seedlings,”
Scheetz said. “We star t-
ed pruning the trees then
and really getting ready for
Christmas trees instead of
reforestation.”
Scheetz Tree Far m at
2297 Cambridge Road has
24 acres of trees in various
sizes. The couple’s oldest
son also has trees on his
far m near New Bedford.
While Christmas is their
busy season, it takes a year’s
worth of work to prepare the
trees for the holiday.
“At t he p r e s e nt t i m e
our daughter and son-in-
law are doing most of the
work,” Scheetz said. “My
wife is 86, and I’m 89. We
sort of watch out the win-
dows and see what happens.
My son-in-law has already
sprayed the trees to help
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