How to Plant Your Live Christmas Tree

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Many people are choosing live Christmas trees for the holidays as environmental consciousness becomes more widespread. Live Christmas trees provide beauty and the fresh scent of pine throughout the holiday and can be planted outdoors afterward. Here's how to plant your holiday tree.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Live Christmas tree
Shovel
Stakes

Step1

To ensure your tree will survive past the holidays leave it outside until the day before Christmas in a sheltered area. When you bring the tree in it is best not to decorate it with lights as this can cause the tree to warm up to the point that it thinks spring is here. Trees that break their dormancy because of heat will not survive being planted outside after Christmas.

Step2

Plant your tree immediately after Christmas or at least put it back outside in the cool air as soon as possible. If your ground is soft enough to dig you can plant your tree right away. If your ground is already frozen you will have to keep the tree in its pot in a sheltered area outside until spring. Prepare a hole in the ground ahead of time, keeping the displaced soil warm by covering it with hay.

Step3

Dig a hole that is at least 2-3 inches wider than the root ball of your live tree and about 6-7 inches deeper.

Step4

Remove any covering or burlap from the root ball of the live Christmas tree. Remove all decorations from the tree as well.

Step5

Place your live Christmas tree into the hole and fill in the hole with loose dirt. Water the tree well and continue to water whenever you have a warm spell of weather.

Step6

Put several stakes around your live Christmas tree to help hold it upright in the strong winter winds.