Live Christmas Tree Care

Last week, I talked about the benefits of buying a live tree for the holidays. This week, I’m going to tell you what to do with it.

First, at the nursery or tree farm, check the size of the ball and make sure the hole you’ve dug will accept it. Once at home, the tree should go in a spot sheltered from wind, and if possible, out of direct sunlight until it goes indoors.

Remember, it’s a living thing and on warm days it will need water. You can use a watering can to slowly soak the ball with cold water, or place the ball on top of a sheet of plastic or into a heavy black plastic bag and just add the water to the bag but don’t let the water sit in the bag. Make sure the bag has a couple of small drainage holes to let any excess water drain out.

That’s it until a few days before Christmas.

Remember that the tree thinks it’s winter so you can’t keep it indoors for weeks at a time. And it will be very unhappy in front of your fireplace.

Wrap the ball with plastic and bring the plastic up and around the ball to the trunk, making a bag. Or place the ball in a plastic bag. This time you don’t want any drainage holes unless you have some kind of container under the tree. You’ll have to keep on watering the tree to keep it healthy and fireproof. Don’t soak it, but you may find that a 6-foot-tall tree will take up from 6 to 10 ounces of water a day.

Plan on keeping your tree inside for a week before it has to go back outside to be planted in the hole you dug. Then store the tree in a transitional place, like a garage, for several days before it is moved from a warm house to the cold ground.

When planting day arrives, remove the mulch from the hole you dug and check the ball height and width against the hole depth and width. It’s doubtful you’ll have to make the hole wider but you may have to make it deeper.

If the hole is too deep, use the soil you took from the hole and mulched to fill the bottom. When in doubt, it’s always safer to plant a tree too high instead of too low.

With the ball in the hole, slowly add soil around the sides using your fingers to fill in any gaps. Don’t pack the soil but make sure the entire ball is in contact with the surrounding soil. The soil should come up to but not cover the ball and the ball should be at or slightly above the level of the surrounding ground.

Once the soil is placed and firmed around the ball, you can cut the twine that was used to ball the soil. There’s no need to remove it; just cut it away from the trunk and off the top of the ball.

Also make sure that the burlap is cut or untied from the trunk. There’s no need to remove any of the burlap as it, and the twine, will disintegrate in a few months.

If it’s above freezing, use a watering can and water in the tree, keeping in mind that you’re watering the ball and not the soil around the tree. When that’s done, reapply the mulch that you pulled from the hole and cover the ball as well as the ground about a foot further out from the ball. Then you’re done. For now.

If you get a chance on mild winter days, give the tree some water. Come spring, water the tree regularly as the roots begin to regenerate and the tree can again sustain itself. This will take up to a year.

Once planted, the most important thing you can do to ensure the tree’s success will be to water it. Also, in the spring, you should add a biostimulant to the root zone, but no fertilizers. This can be done by adding the biostimulant to the water, or use a granular material that you’ll add to the soil surface, then water.

Your 2010 Christmas tree will grow slowly at first but after a few years it will pick up momentum and will add 6 inches to a foot in height every year. If you plan on living on your property for many years, this can be a wonderful tradition in which a new tree is added to the landscape every winter forming a hedgerow, windbreak or the beginnings of an evergreen forest.

Planting a Christmas tree can turn into a great family project, becoming an annual tradition and a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday and perpetuate the memories.

Keep growing.