HONOLULU (KHON2) — Christmas cheer is in the air! It’s a good sign to get a head start in your Christmas tree shopping.
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Stores like Home Depot have already received their first shipment of about 70 to 150 trees following inspections by the Department of Agriculture, a process that started before any trees arrived in Hawaii.
“The trees a lot of times do harbor a lot of slugs of snails,” stated Department of Agriculture Plant Quarantine Manager, Jonathon Ho. “Then you have incidentals like salamanders, newts. We have had snakes once in a while.”
According to Ho, pre-entry measures done in other states before shipment prevent most unwanted species from hitching a ride to the islands.
If you want to keep it local, Helemano Farms in Wahiawa has 40 acres of options planted on leased state agriculture land. Owner, Aaron O’Brien, said some locals have visited for the past 15 years.
“This year we have about 4,000 trees available,” O’Brien. “Pretty much every year we sell out. Usually the third to fourth weekend.”
Helemano Farms will begin selling its popular Norfolk trees starting Saturday, Nov. 18. Other tree varieties like the Cypress tree will sell during the weekend of Black Friday.
“The Cypress will be limited. We only have 300 this year, but we have a lot of Norfolks,” said O’Brien.
