Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Spruce tips/tops 2022
I know, it’s not Thanksgiving yet but already all the spruce top pots and decorations are being sold. Perhaps because it suddenly got REAL cold.
In fact, since I was sick when it was warm I didn’t get out to disconnect my hoses from the hose and empty them before they froze. UGH, I did get to them later but I’m just hoping they’ll be fine. Shout out to Dramm hoses! Oh, and another irritant, so during MUCH of the summer my rain barrel sat empty. Then it filled up and then promptly froze. Thank you for letting me vent!
Now, about those spruce tops. There have been a lot of complaints about them this year, 2022. I know, they don’t look great. The weather this year created some tough issues for evergreens. First a drought, then temperatures that were too warm, 79 degrees in early November is ridiculous and those spruce tips had been cut to get to nurseries to sell. Sitting in warm weather is NOT conducive to keeping spruce tips pretty. NOW, they’ll be looking better as the temperatures in my area dropped considerably…
And what IS a spruce top or tip, as they’re often called? How long does it take to grow them?
Spruce tops are cut from White and Black Spruce in northern Minnesota and Canada. The cutting of spruce tops is licensed by the state and provinces. Here is what they actually are: First, it does not involve the harvesting of actual tree tops. Spruce tops, which grow up from the root system of a mature spruce tree, are a regenerative crop that can be harvested again and again!
Grown in this manner, the tree tops will have the form and foliage of more mature trees. They were cut that way starting back in the early 1950’s according to some sites, to be sold as tabletop decoration. Yes, it’s renewable but not instant, it can take 5 to 10 years to harvest again!
Spruce tops are a good cash crop for public lands where most spruce tops come from. Check out this great information from the Gaylord Garden Club out of Gaylord, Minnesota!
Oh and there are spruce top thieves too. This link goes to a 2020 article from MPR, but don’t think it’s not still happening. In fact, I was told that some thieves have even ventured into homeowners landscapes and lopped off the tops. Really??? What a lousy thing to do!