Fraser Fir

Size, growth and what to expect

Fraser fir grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. In full sun, planted seedlings have averaged about 8 feet at 11 years. With weed control and fertilizer, Christmas tree plantings reach 6 feet in 6 to 8 years. It matures at 30 to 55 feet, 10 to 25 feet wide, and wild trees live about 150 years.

It flowers from mid-May to early June, and the upright cones ripen from September to mid-October. The cones are 1.5 to 2.5 inches long, dark purple under pale bracts that curl down over the scales. When ripe they shed their scales and seeds together, leaving the bare woody core on the branch. Red squirrels eat the seeds and the buds.

It grows wild only on the highest peaks of southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, mostly above 5,500 feet. On the summits it forms nearly pure stands, where American mountain ash is almost its only neighbor in the canopy. Lower down it grows with red spruce. Planted trees are reported to persist in Georgia, where it is not native.

How to grow Fraser Fir

Fraser fir wants full sun or light shade and a cool, moist site. It needs an acid, loamy soil that stays moist but drains well, and it grows poorly in heavy clay. It does not stand summer heat. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and set trees 15 feet apart for a group. Keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant in early spring or fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sow seed outdoors in fall a quarter inch deep, under a mulch of sawdust. For a spring sowing, keep it damp in the refrigerator for one to two months first.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in every dry spell after that. Keep a mulch of wood chips over the shallow roots. Deer seldom browse it. It needs no pruning beyond dead wood.

Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen. A lone tree may bear a good crop of cones that holds little sound seed. Seed production can begin at about 15 years, and good crops come every other year. The balsam woolly adelgid kills a tree within 2 to 5 years of infesting its trunk. Insecticides can protect a few trees within reach, though not a forest. On poorly drained soil, Phytophthora root rot kills young trees. Spider mites attack it in hot weather.