Winter holidays are one of my favorite times of the year and the moment I crave the most is decorating the Christmas tree. Besides making the Christmas tree look gorgeous, I also take care of it in order to extend its life. In the past years I had spectacular live Christmas trees, but they dried quickly. Since we all are learning from past mistakes, I intend this year not to let my evergreen fir tree to dry out so quickly. Therefore, I found out about a natural homemade preservative that extends the life of your evergreen Christmas tree. Many local Christmas tree owners use this natural preservative to keep the trees fresh longer.
So, here’s what you have to do!
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Prepare the natural preservative using these ingredients:
- 1 gallon of water
- 4 tsp of Clorox bleach
- 2 cups of Light Corn Syrup
- 4 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar
Mix the ingredients in a glass bottle and store it in the refrigerator. If you decide to add lemon juice or vinegar, add it to the water and not to the bleach directly because you risk toxic fumes.
Personally, I intend using this remedy, but there are some other options you can use to extend the life of your Christmas tree, such as:
Add vodka to the water. The myth is that the vodka will allow the water to spread throughout the tree faster. Not sure about you, but when I add vodka to myself, I totally dehydrate. BUT, I was at the lot again yesterday and overheard a staff member mention this. Use at your own risk.
Add aspirin to the water. This allows better flow of water into the trunk. People claim this works.
Run a whole-house humidifier. Talk about impractical.
Remember!The first time you bring your Christmas tree home you need to cut 1 inch off the bottom of the trunk. Trees like flowers form a hard cap on the end of the cut and if you don’t remove this your tree won’t be able to suck up water or the tree food.
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