By David Harry
Staff Writer

As the sun began to set beyond a field of balsam fir trees Tuesday, Mahesh and Thilanka Bandara stood in a field at Beech Ridge Farm, facing a hard choice.
Choosing their first Christmas tree ever was not easy for the Bandaras.
The South Portland couple, who are practicing Buddhists, were ready to embrace some Christmas traditions as “festive and fun,” said Thilanka.
It would only take a few minutes to cut down a tree, but Jim and Nancy Pearson estimate it took 10 years of work to grow. The Pearsons have been growing Christmas trees since 1986.
According to Dave Rice, president of the 125-member Maine Christmas Tree Association, last weekend and the next two weekends are the prime time for farmers to sell trees they often have cultivated for more than a decade.
Rice said determining how much money is made each year from tree sales is difficult because growers keep sales figures close to their vests, but the window for making money is small.
The planting, fertilizing, weeding and trimming needed to create trees people want is a year-round job, said Nancy Pearson.
Despite driving rains Friday, Pearson said the traditional first day of tree-selling season brought repeat customers who have been cutting down trees for years or generations.
 “The people who came out were prepared,” she said. The farm routinely sells to out-of-state customers headed home after Thanksgiving or to families with college-age children who are home for a holiday break and want to put up a Christmas tree before going back to school, she added.
In Kennebunk, Diane Homes-Brandt and her husband, David Brandt, greeted the same kind of loyal and new customers at Holmes Tree Farm.
“It’s a family thing, and we try to be careful and keep our prices reasonable,” Holmes-Brandt said.
Inside the gift store at the farm, the Wolf family from York sipped hot cider and dried off after cutting a Christmas tree for the first time.
“Hands down – this is a new tradition,” said Lauren Wolf as her daughter Norah, 4, gaped at dolls and decorations.
Lauren Wolf said the tree had to be purchased last Friday, before her older daughter, Beth Wisnoski, left with her husband, Jeff Wisnoski, for their home in Allentown, Pa.
“This really starts the Christmas spirit,” Beth Wisnoski said.”
Nancy Pearson says the first weekend in December is the busiest each year, and said harder economic times may limit other decorations people buy, including wreaths.
“The economy will not hurt you when it comes to a tree,” said Pearson.
Holmes-Brandt agreed, but said there are more than enough hazards caused by climate and weather to make tree growing a sometimes difficult business.
Last year, Kennebunk was hit hard by an ice storm that left the farm without power. The farm stayed open, but ice- and snow-laden trees are difficult to carry and wrap in mesh, David Brandt said.
The damp weather this summer also hurt trees, Pearson said, leaving waterlogged roots and discolored trees. She estimated the farm lost 500 trees to the wet weather.
Rice said the excessive rain might have been a boon to some farmers, though.
“Somebody with sandy soil might have been praising the Lord,” Rice said of conditions in June and July.
From planting to tree stand, it may be a decade before a seedling becomes the centerpiece of a Christmas celebration. Seedlings bought from sources such as Western Maine Nurseries in Fryeburg may already be two years old, Pearson said.
Rice said trees are as much a commodity as tomatoes or potatoes, grown to be cultivated. While they are growing, Holmes-Brandt said an acre of trees daily convert carbon dioxide into enough oxygen for 18 people.
She said every tree cut annually is replaced with a seedling planted next to a stump that the growers grind to provide nourishment for the new tree.
Pearson recommended just using water to keep a tree fresh, but said customers who drive more than 20 minutes to take a tree home should trim an additional inch off the trunk to ensure the tree continues to draw water in the stand.
The freshness struck the Bandaras as they took in the pine scent and beheld the tree Mahesh cut.
“It is a good tree, isn’t it?” he said before getting help to carry it from the field.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219