Halka Nurseries specializes in growing and shipping mammoth trees

It takes more than extra elbow grease to move a 20-inch-caliper tree, and Halka Nurseries Inc. in Englishtown, N.J., has carved a niche in growing, harvesting and shipping such large specimens.

Since his father founded the nursery in 1954, the laborious task of digging up large trees has changed dramatically, said owner Chet Halka.

"Back then, lifting was all done with rigging, skids, rollers, pulleys and wenches," Halka said. "It takes a lot of rigging to move a tree, and by the time two people would take the rigging out to the field, set it up, move the tree and put away the rigging, you've spent nearly half a day on one tree."

Caterpillar power

Now Halka has heavy-duty machinery that can lift two to four 12- to 20-inch-caliper trees per hour.

Previously, Halka used three 24-ton machines to do all the heavy lifting. But two years ago he purchased a 992 Caterpillar and a 988 Caterpillar and made some modifications to them. He increased the size of the bucket on the 992 by 24 inches to better accommodate the balls. He removed the bucket on the 988 and added 8-foot forks, which took the weight off the front of the machine.

"Either one of the Caterpillars can lift the trees on their own," he said. "But we had to make the adjustments to best suit our needs."

Sweat equity

Heavy-duty machines may take the hassle out of lifting and moving, but when it comes to harvesting the trees, it's all about manpower.

Workers hand-dig the trees because the men can make a tighter ball than a tree spade, he said.

"Tree spades are fine for smaller trees, but we need to customize the shape of the ball to ride on a trailer," he said.

Once the trees are hand-dug, workers drum-lace the ball by hand before the trees are loaded on trailers and shipped. Once the trees are loaded, Halka has a series of 20-foot poles with 20-gallon-per-minute nozzles attached to water the trees.

"It's important during a dry fall or in late spring or early summer to keep the moisture in the ball for shipping," he said. "The poles are spaced so trailers can squeeze through and water both sides of the tree."

Wide load

Halka uses common carriers to ship nationwide. Halka is bound by the height of any overpass, so the tops of trees can't ride any higher on the trailer than 13 feet, 6 inches.

"If we get a top of a tree on a trailer that's higher than that, it becomes expensive firewood," he said. "But we have a lot of trees on site and we can offer the customer an alternative. We overplant purposely because I'd rather cut trees down than tell a customer I don't have it."

In terms of tree balls, Halka can get wide-load permits for oversized shipments.

"We can get permits to go wide, but we can't get permits to go higher," he said.

Halka Nurseries Inc.

Founded: By Chester Halka Sr. in 1954.

Location: 2,300 acres total in Englishtown, N.J. and Cumberland County, N.J.

Crops: 200-250 varieties of trees from 3-inch-caliper up to 20-inch-caliper.

Market: Commercial sites and high-end residential. Ships nationwide.

Employees: 60.

For more: Halka Nurseries Inc., 240 Sweetmans Lane, Englishtown, NJ 07726; (732) 462-8450; fax (732) 409-2705.

- Kelli Rodda