Tech Lawn and Garden: How to Keep Your Christmas Tree Alive

From the colorful lights to the fresh scent, a quintessential Christmas tree can transform any area into the perfect holiday setting, but maintaining the decorative conifer requires care.  

Quentin Holden, lead tree surgeon for Landscape Services at Georgia Tech, offers tips on keeping your tree vibrant throughout the holiday season, starting with the selection process. When choosing a tree, he recommends lightly shaking a few branches to ensure the needles stay on. Falling needles indicate a tree in declining health.  

Once you’ve selected a tree, Holden says to make a half-inch cut at the bottom of the trunk to allow it to absorb water more efficiently. Before bringing the tree inside, Holden lets the tree branches settle outside and shed excess needles.  

Water your tree right away and keep it adequately watered. Make sure your tree stand is filled with the recommended amount of water daily. Holden warns against using a fertilizer like Miracle-Gro in the tree stand, explaining that its salt-based nature will kill the tree quickly.  

He also cautions against placing the tree near any heat sources in your home to ensure the tree doesn’t dry out and become a safety hazard. Due to the resin on the needles, Christmas trees can be engulfed in flames in seconds, especially those that aren’t properly watered.  

To prevent potential tree fires, use low-heat lights, space out the lights on the tree, check for broken lights before placing them on the tree, do not overload an electrical outlet, and turn lights off when going to sleep or leaving the house.  

A well-watered tree purchased after Thanksgiving, Holden says, should last through the 12 days of Christmas. When the tree has reached the end of its life, local recycling plants operate programs to reuse the mulch in the community for gardens, pond habitats, and other landscaping.