Events Thursday ECA Meeting
Exotic Conifer Association Annual Field Day
St. Croix Valley Trees, August 3, 2023
(Pre-NCTA tour: NCTA summer meeting 1 hour away)
Schottler Family, 458 Rice Lake Road, Somerset WI 54025
Thursday, August 3rd 2023
Hosted by Paul, Sherrill & Shawn Schottler at
St Croix Valley Christmas Trees - Somerset, Wisconsin
St. Croix Valley Trees is a 40 year Choose-and Cut tree farm featuring agri-tainment, selling 12 species of conifers and conducting field experiments on new methods and new varieties. This meeting will also feature our special guest and presentation by Ulrik Nyvold from Levinsen Tree Seed, Denmark EUR.
Agenda
8:00 - 8:30 Registration (Coffee, Juice & heavily frosted donuts)
8:30 - 9:00 Welcome and Farm overview
9:00 - 12:00 Wagon Tour of Farm Fields
Stop 1: Korean Fir Shearing trials: timing, bud position and fertilizer
Stop 2: Herbicide tests; Glyphosate on new growth and monthly applications
Sureguard + glyphosate; Simazine + Dual rate compariosns
Goal + fusilade summer applicaton rate comparisons
Weird response with Plateau herbicide
Stop 3: Long term nitrogen application rate comparisons
Stop 4: Cover crops: field rotations with alfalfa, inter-row legumes
Stop 5: Evaluation of Siberian Fir (regreshments /water)
Stop 6: Kor x Bal: Comparison of plantings from 3 sourcer
Stop 7: Exotics in Wisconsin comparioson: Kor x Fraser,
Kor x Corkbark, more
12:00 - 1:00 Homestyle summer lunch provided by nearby farm,
1:00-1:45 Agritainment tour: featuring the Enchanted Castle, Santa's Coal mine, Worlds's largest gumball machine, disappearint tree and... dealing with insurance
1:45 - 2:30 Cut your own operation: Handling large volumes of people- efficiently
2:30 - 2:45 ECA business meeting
3:15 - 3:30 Travel North 4 miles
3:30-4:15 Growing Fir in Europe: European growing techniques, genetics and breeding. Guest presentation: Ulrik Nyvold, Levinsen Treeseed Denmark Eur. or
Tour Gentian Farm: Exotic tree plantings, seed beds, alternative shearing techniques: growing/harvesting natice prairie seeds for supplemental income.
4:15 - 4:30 Move between sessions
4:30 - 5:15 Growing Fir in Europe: European growing techniques, genetics and breeding programs. Guest presentation: Ulrik Nyvold, Levinsen Treeseed, Denmark or
Tour Gentian Farm: Exotic tree plantings, seed beds, alternative shearing techniques: growing/harvesting natice prairie seeds for supplemental income.
5:15 - 7:00 Wood Fired Pizza at Common Harvest Organic Farm (CSA), with walking tour of 'gardens'.