Cutting down your Christmas tree this year? Here’s where to start
Nov 30, 2024, 1:28 PM
"This one," Willow Jarmon exclaims, while helping her family look for a Christmas tree at the Cummings Tree Lot in Salt Lake on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017. Cummings Tree Lot is a family operation and has been in business for 63 years.
SALT LAKE CITY — Cutting down a Christmas tree for holiday decoration is something some people have only seen in movies. Believe it or not, cutting down your own Christmas tree is an annual holiday tradition families enjoy doing.
How to start that tradition? The Greenhouse Show hosts Maria Shilaos and Taun Beddes talked about the steps to take when caring for a cut-down Christmas tree.
Step one:
If you are getting a cut tree from a tree lot, the first thing to do is make sure the needles are not going to fall off of the tree.
Beddes said you can do that by lifting the tree up a couple of inches off of the ground and dropping it or by tapping the tree with your hand.
“First sign of trouble, if the needles are falling off,” Beddes said. “So, if you can find a tree and there’s no needles falling off, the next step is to just get it home.”
Step two:
In order to get the tree home, Beddes advised taking the tree off of the wooden base while at the tree lot and loading the tree up to head home.
“When you get it home, you want to do a fresh cut on the base of the tree,” Beddes said.
Beddes said making that fresh cut will help the tree to obsorb water later on.
“The tree can stay like that for about four and eight hours,” Beddes said. “And so, you want to put it in a tree stand that’s big enough to support the tree and that holds at least a gallon of water.”
Step three:
Making sure the tree is hydrated is important to keep it alive.
Beddes said if the tree was shipped into the tree lot, the tree will likely be very thirsty. This means the tree can absorb a lot of water the first couple of days.
Beddes also added not to add sugar to the water or plant preservatives. He says all the tree needs is water.
“You need to keep checking how much water is in the stand so that you can keep the tree hydrated,” Beddes said.
According to Beddes, making sure to keep the tree watered the entire season will keep the tree fresh.
“It also reduces a fire danger because of dry trees more likely to go up in flames,” Beddes said.
Beddes advices people to check on the tree multiple times throughout the day in the first couple of days with the tree.
“It’s just like a straw sucking that water up,” Beddes said. “If the tree is, especially, a little bit taller, it can absorb a couple gallons of water the first 48 hours.”
Optional steps to take:
Another step someone might take is spraying anti-desiccant on the trees. Beddes said this can help the tree lose less water.
Beddes said some people make their cut trees a little more glossy by putting leaf shine on them.
One trend Beddes said he’s noticed coming back are flocked Christmas trees.
“I have noticed that flocked Christmas trees are back this year,” Beddes said. “They’re kind of in trend.”
If you are looking for a flocked tree, Beddes said some tree lots will flock the tree for you for an extra price so you don’t have to.
Listen to the KSL Greenhouse Podcast on KSL NewsRadio’s website.
