'Tis THE SCIENCES OF THE SEASON.

• Position: CHRISTMAS TREE & CHESTNUTS

Helping keep the holiday season green and fragrant are Michigan State University researchers who dedicate their expertise year-round to the Christmas tree and chestnut industries.

Bert Cregg, professor of horticulture and forestry in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, specializes in tree physiology, nutrition, and coning. Unlike crops planted and harvested in the same year, Christmas trees are a waiting game that take up to a decade from seed to cutting.

Coning, or the excess production of cones, is a major issue for Cregg. "Frasier firs produce a lot of cones at an early age and the growers have to pick them off by hand," he said. "A nine-foot tree could have up to 1,000 cones."

Interfering with the tree's hormone cycle can reduce tree coning by half. Also, applying organic herbicides that break down the cone's waxy cuticles causes them to dry and fall off.

Cregg also is looking at other tree species from around the world to find those with desirable traits, such as vivid green color and smell and needle retention. "We are looking at the Turkish and Trojan fir from northern Turkey. I'm not sure it is going to be a winner in Michigan, however. One problem we are already seeing is late frost damage.

"In much of the U.S., the preferred tree is a sheared Frasier fir with a conical shape and good needle retention. The average tree has 100,000 needles and, at 99% retention, there are still going to be 1,000 needles on the floor. People have a low tolerance for needles."

Robert Goodwin, senior geospatial analyst with Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems at MSU, and colleagues Nicholas Weil and Joseph Welsh are measuring the health and height of Christmas trees using drones programmed to fly more than 150 feet above the ground.

"We can scan a 20-acre Christmas tree farm in about 25 minutes. The drone scans the tree...