How To Care For Your Live Christmas Tree

It can be a challenge to care for a live Christmas tree. Luckily, there are a few simple tricks and tips you can use to help it last through the season!

Picking A Healthy Tree

With Christmas right around the corner, now is the time to start planning to bring your tree home. The sooner you get ready the better because the best trees go fast. It is essential to be one of the first families on the lot for the season. However, this does not mean cutting your tree right away. Most local farms will allow you to pick out a tree, and they will hold it for you until it’s time to cut. This method is the best way to pick out a tree. Coming to the lot early allows you to pick a healthy tree. Avoid trees with any dry patches or ones that have needles that are brittle when bent. This also means that the tree hasn’t been sitting on a roadside lot for weeks drying out before you even get to take it home. While it is the best time to cut a live Christmas tree, winter is the worst time to trim a Christmas tree, so you will be already fighting an uphill battle.

Bringing Your Live Christmas Tree Home

Once you are ready to take home your tree, you want to keep it in a cool place first. It is crucial to allow the tree to slowly acclimate because the shock of a warm indoors can kill it. You also will want to keep it out of the wind. Some excellent places to keep the tree would be a garage, shed or basement. You also want to recut the bottom by at least an inch after transporting the tree to your home. Doing this will allow the tree to absorb the most water. It should also immediately be placed in water and have the water refilled daily.

Enjoy It For Longer

The next step is to bring it in for decorating. Be sure to set up the tree away from sources of heat, like radiators and fireplaces. The heat from these tools can dry out your tree faster. That being said, the room should be cool and refreshing in general. The placement of your tree is also important. You want to keep your tree away from areas of your home with heavy traffic. This is because brushing and bumping into the tree could cause needles and branches to break, two things that cause a tree to deteriorate more quickly.

Caring For Your Tree

Once you’ve got the perfect place picked out, it’s time to care for the tree. You will want to water the tree daily. A gallon of water is a pretty good rule of thumb, but this factor is completely dependent on the size of your tree. Some people may say that adding homemade treatments like sugar or spirit to the water could help its longevity, but studies have found that this is seldom the case. If you are worried about the suitability of the location of your tree for the long term, try adding a humidifier and lowering your thermostat. Turning your lights off when you aren’t enjoying it will also help. Sometimes, if the lights are on for too long, it can burn the needles a bit and cause your live Christmas tree to dry out a lot faster.

Make A Clean Getaway

The last thing you need to think about is how you plan on removing a tree. This step needs to be finished quickly so you won’t be left with a mess and a potential hazard. You should have your tree out of your home at least ten days after Christmas. It might be important to get it out sooner if there are signs of early decay. If you don’t get the tree out, it could lead to a very messy removal. In addition, a dried and brittle tree can become a risk for fire. Many communities offer services for Christmas tree removal after the holidays.

LTRC Tree Care

Your trees are in great care with us. Whether it is a Christmas tree inside or trees out on your lawn you can trust us for tree care services. Our tree specialists can serve you with anything from pruning to removal. Leave your tree care to the certified arborists at LTRC trees and contact us by calling (404) 977-4482 or by visiting our website.