hey guys, im getting a real christmas tree this year. ive never had one before.. any tips on the upkeep of it, or what i can do to make it last longer?
2007-12-04 06:00:31 · 7 answers · asked by cherrybomb 4 in Home & Garden ➔ Other - Home & Garden
In addition to the above answer: after you have cut off a couple of inches get a drill and drill about 6 5/16" holes in the bottom pointing upwards - this will help the tree on uptake of water.
Add a cup of sugar to the water (dissolve it in hot water first). This will help keep it from drying out quite as fast.
2007-12-04 06:13:39 · answer #1 · answered by Steve in NC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whatever you do make sure you have a fresh cut on the bottom before you put it in the stand. This is the number one killer of Christmas trees. These are pine trees and have been cut down quite a while ago. Pine has a lot of sap in it. That sap collects at the bottom and seals up the wound. If you fail to cut away several inches just before you immerse it water it will be unable to draw the water up and will dry out very quickly.
There are commercially available preservatives that you can add to the water. They work pretty well as long as the tree can draw the water up.
After setting the tree in the stand, let it relax for several hours. The tree will settle and when it does the balance may change and you will have to reset it again.
If you hang ornaments on it too soon they may drop off and break as the branches droop back to their normal position.
For safety sake, do not leave the tree lights on while the tree is unattended.
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2007-12-04 06:15:35 · answer #2 · answered by Jacob W 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cut a few inches off the bottom of the trunk. Put in stand with water. Make sure that there is always water (a bigger stand means you don't have to fill it up so often). Don't put the tree in the hotest room in the house (so it doesn't dry out as fast). I always spread a heavy drop sheet on the carpet and cover that with Christmas material. When Christmas is over, this allows me to put the drop sheet up over the tree and remove the tree without needles all through the house.
If you go and cut your own tree, it will be fresher than any precut that you can buy.
2007-12-04 06:10:16 · answer #3 · answered by vjvl 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You can keep it outside where it is cold until you are ready to put it up.
To keep it as fresh as possible,when you first get it, you need to cut off about two inches from the bottom of the trunk. Take a big bucket, 5 gal or so, fill it with HOT water to which you add a slug of clorox and a sug of corn syrup. Stir this mixture well and stand your tree in it. The hot water softens up the sap so that the water can get up into the tree, and the bleach and corn syrup help preserve it. A tree can take up as much as 5 gallons of water in the first 24 hrs so keep the bucket topped off with hot water. When you put it in the stand, keep the water level aboout 3" up on the trunk of the tree, and do not shave off the bark to get it into the stand, if you do you take off all the cells that absorb the water. Keep it away from heat vents and fireplaces. It should last at least 10 days -2 weeks.
And when you are done with it, please take it to a city collection point to be ground up as mulch for the city parks, or give it to the conservation agency for use as habitat for fish in lakes, or just put it on a brush pile for shelter for small animals.
2007-12-04 08:21:20 · answer #4 · answered by Isadora 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All I remember is my parents mixing sugar in the water of the base..
2007-12-05 18:28:10 · answer #5 · answered by Cher Bear 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
keep the bottom cut and in fresh water it will last longer and not wrinckel away
2007-12-04 14:58:30 · answer #6 · answered by matthew v 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you got alot of good answers. dont think i could top them so i say "all of the above" lol!!
2007-12-04 09:12:27 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋