Christmas Tree Care
So having purchased your Christmas Tree how do you ensure that it looks its best until the festive season is over? Here are some tips that you can use to look after your tree and ensure that needle drop is kept to a minimum.
First of all this ‘non drop’ Christmas Tree description is a little misleading. Once cut Christmas Trees have lost ther roots and therefore cannot permanently replenish the water and nutrients they need to stay alive. That said even a cut Xmas tree can be encouraged to take in water if you follow these simple steps.
First once you get your tree home try to stand it immediately in a bucket of water in a cool dry place until needed indoors. The warm dry atmosphere of a centrally heated home in Winter is not exactly the best place to keep a cut tree alive so you need to minimise the length of time you have the tree indoors if you can.
When you are ready to bring your Christmas Tree indoors cut of the bottom inch or so of the trunk. This create a fresh cut to open up the pores in the bark which will encourage the tree to take up more water.
Choose a properly designed Christmas Tree stand which has a reservoir to stand the trunk into allowing you to top up the water level each day. We know from our own experience that a 6 ft Christmas Tree can take up around 2 litres or more each day, it does this by capillary action through the pores in its trunk. Don’t let the water level drop below the trunk as the wood will dry out and even when you add more water your tree will be unable to take it up.
Try not to site your Xmas tree next to a radiator or other heat source, this will dry out the tree much more quickly.
A word about using wooden tree ‘blocks’ as a stand. These are great for convenience but you have to realise that you will not be able to water your Christmas Tree and inevitably it will dry out faster. It’s up to you which way you go. At our Wigan garden centre we sell around 400 trees each year with blocks so we know they are popular with our customers even if it is not the best way to look after your tree.
The main thing is to make sure that you buy a fresh cut tree. Every year we check every tree we sell to make sure it leaves us in the best condition possible, all our Christmas Trees are cut as late as possible and shipped to us right away to ensure that you get the best Xmas Tree we can supply.
For more information on looking after your Xmas Tree take alook at the video….
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Tags: billinge, christmas tree care, garden centre, how to, live, needle drop, real, water, watering, wigan, xmas