Accidental death

[HoneySuckleBlue]

Does anybody know how to keep the Christmas trees with the rootballs alive long enough to plant them?

I was soo sad when mine died anyway last year because it was our first christmas in the new house and I think if it happens again I might just have to revert to the fakie plastic ones.

[nirgal]

Yes, I'm a professional ;)

I'll write it up later

[nirgal]

The best thing to do is take them home and plant them in the yard, then go to walmart.

The worst thing to do for a tree that has gone dormant for the winter, is to bring it in to a warm, dry house.

But if you must....
Pick out a good tree, one that has good color, isn't loosing any outside needles, and particularly important, is not wobbly in its root ball, and that ball should be firm, not like a used diaper.

Unlike people, trees need to be handled by their balls. Don't lift it by the trunk! The roots just below the surface at the top of the rrot ball are easily damaged and if they are, the tree has little chance of surviving.

When you get it home, dig the hole and have it ready for later. It should be 2/3 the depth of the root ball and twice as wide. Then cover this so it doesn't freeze. Leave the tree outdoors.

A week before you want to bring it inside, spray it with an anti desicant (Wiltprufe is a good one) and put it in the garage. Make sure it's moist, but not wet muddy and soft. when you bring it in, put it in something waterproof and cover the ball with plastic.
Leave it in the warm place no more than a week, then back to the garage to cool back down again. All this tome check to make sure it doesn't go dry. Don't over water it though, you don't want it soft (Ice cubes are a good way to get moisture into the root ball).

Then go ahead and plant it. It should sit up out of the ground a little bit. Don't put dirt on top of the rootball only up around the sides and make a little bowl around it. Soak it in really good with the hose on a slow trickle, then cover the top of the ball with mulch or leaves.
In the spring when it shows signs of growth, water it again. Try to do it at least once a week through the first year. Rain doesn't do anything for several years, because all the roots are in that small ball. Whereas in an established tree, most of the tree is underground.....
Trees are my friends :)

[Moominpappa]

I talk to the trees.... that's why they put me away


(Eat your heart out Clint Eastwood)

http://www.atlanticdvd.com.au/product_images/large/paint_your_wagon.jpg

[Scholar_Warrior]

what ever you do, don't go to Walmart! they are one of many of the world's worst corporate offenders of human rights, and ecology, etc.! I won't set foot in one!

not only do they financially fuck their employees as well as the employees of all of their vendors (albeit indirectly), but they move into towns with a local character and put all the mom 'n' pop businesses out of business! not only does this put honest, hard-working people out of business (and they may even have to take a job at walmart!) but it robs a community of it's character!!!

this is totally un-american and un-love-ly.

[Moominpappa]

what ever you do, don't go to Walmart! they are one of many of the world's worst corporate offenders of human rights, and ecology, etc.! I won't set foot in one!

not only do they financially fuck their employees as well as the employees of all of their vendors (albeit indirectly), but they move into towns with a local character and put all the mom 'n' pop businesses out of business! not only does this put honest, hard-working people out of business (and they may even have to take a job at walmart!) but it robs a community of it's character!!!

this is totally un-american and un-love-ly.
I hate to dis-illusion you, but thats what a lot of the world see as being totally American - big corporate business, greed is good, spreading a universal sameness to every high street\main street with out any thought to local character. We don't get to see the Mom & Pop businesses, but within a quarter of a mile of where I'm sitting is an ASDA superstore, which was brought by Walmart about a year ago. They had whole aisles dedicated to trick or treating, and celebrating thanks-giving when we were in there in a few weeks back - events that were virtually unknown in this country when I was a child. I doubt if you guys had similar displays for Guy Fawkes Night, (November 5th), and I doubt they'll be inviting you to a Haggis tasting on Burns night.

[mariecstasy]

lol....gil you crack me up
so you never go to walmart or any big businesses?

[Scholar_Warrior]

not to walmart. or the gap or ralph lauren.


to me it is offensive to think (in the situation with ralph lauren) that chinese women are forced to work in a prison for twenty cents a day and are systematically raped, etc. and the shirts sell for fifty bucks each!

am I wrong?

[Scholar_Warrior]

I am not wrong.


and people around the planet are abused so that you can buy a bath matt for $4.99.

etc.

[HoneySuckleBlue]

I hav'nt seen anything on that subject so I can't say if you are wrong or not
Gil, but we were actually hoping to get a walmart and a WAWA to push our local HOcker's owner into using more reasonable prices. He's an asswipe and because he is the only hardware/grocery/gas station owner in the area his prices are way higher than they should be, but he's also the state represenative and he used his political clout to keep walmart and wawa from buying the land right up the road from him.



Thank you Greg for typing all that up :) I really appriciate it. I was thinking mebbe I could get one of those really big pots and put it on coaster so I could bringit in and then put it back out easier? I won't be able to afford a really enormous one anyway so it'd be nice until it gets too big if i could use the same tree for the next few years...

[nirgal]

You could try that. A Dwarf Alberta Spruce would probably be best. But it needs full sun in the outdoors or it gets thin. It also gets spidermites if you look at it funny, kind of expensive too. Or you could try something less symmetrical like a juniper or a Hinoki false cypress or one of the other chamaecyparises.

Don't over water when it's inside or under water when it's outside in the summer.
;)

[HoneySuckleBlue]

*blegh*

Waay too much work:p

Today we decided to just go get a fake one...won't tell you where I got it from *slinks away from Gil*

*whispers*...but I tried the other stores and they wanted eighty bucks for a really crappy tree...

[Scholar_Warrior]

btw Moominpapa, I am not dis-illusioned. I understand something of how the rest of the world views "america." I no longer consider myself an "american."


I would happily call myself an American, but will not accept the only version available at present which is of course "american."

the current regime and apparently even the current society do not represent me or my views and I do not support them. I doubt I will ever vote again as the system clearly does not represent me, nor do I have any influence on it. fuck 'em!

bless you brother, and keep conversing with trees - it is much more sane than this human world!

[Fractual_]

you could always have christmas outside..

[HoneySuckleBlue]

I think Gil needs a hug.

[Moominpappa]

btw Moominpapa, I am not dis-illusioned. I understand something of how the rest of the world views "america." I no longer consider myself an "american."


I would happily call myself an American, but will not accept the only version available at present which is of course "american."

the current regime and apparently even the current society do not represent me or my views and I do not support them. I doubt I will ever vote again as the system clearly does not represent me, nor do I have any influence on it. fuck 'em!

bless you brother, and keep conversing with trees - it is much more sane than this human world!
Mate - one big moomin bear hug (early solstice present)

Hopefully, one day the Ents will march out across the land and help us end the self-centred petty greed that drives so much of what we call society. Omens are looking good - Saruman is back in the White House, (sorry tower!)

Last one in the sweat lodge is equally welcome, (no discrimination against weakness at our round table - for that is truely the way of the warrior)

Anyway, these are all topics for many other threads, for now Kim has her tree, and however much we despise the source, it will now be put to a good purpose, providing a gathering point for friends and family alike. We will be bringing our little tree which lives in a pot back indoors for this solstice, (and letting it sleep its hangover off over Christmas and New Year).