CHRISTMAS TREE CARE: Best Guide To Care For Christmas Tree

This ultimate Christmas tree care guide covers all the important aspects of caring Christmas tree. Find out how to care for your Christmas tree successfully.

Well before knowing about the care guide, let us discuss about what is a real Christmas tree?

You may have seen many Youtubers and websites claiming to share details about Christmas Tree, but sadly many of them are sharing the incomplete information. A Christmas tree is basically any decorated evergreen tree belonging to division Conifer of vascular land plants.

Moreover it can be Spruce, Pine, or Fir. You can grow any of them as Christmas tree. Many people also likes to have similar artificial tree, but, natural trees are always better.

Christians love to decorate these trees with paper roses, tinsels, apples, wafers, garlands, candy canes, lights, etc. during first day of Advent and Christmas eve. They also add angel star on the top of the tree which represents Angel Gabriel.

Introduction

For the very first time, Protestants Christians of Germany started bringing this tree as a decorative Christmas tree in their homes during 19th Century. But, this concept was not supported by Catholic Christians until 1982.

In the year 1982, the first Christmas tree was placed in Vatican City and from then it became a tradition. Every Christians across the globe started bringing beautiful conifers into their homes.

The lush green appearance of the tree with beautiful decorations gives the feeling of divine energy. All conifers love cold climate to grow and prosper so tropical regions are not a suitable place to grow these trees.

However, few varieties can also tolerate tropical heat but ideally you can grow Christmas trees in temperate to hilly regions. If you will take care well then they can also perform good in pots.

Christmas Tree Care Guide

Basically to care about Christmas tree you have to know to take care of conifers. In this article you will learn about growing season, potting mix, selection of pot, sunlight, watering, manures and fertilizers, pest and disease, etc.

Growing Season

You can easily grow, or transplant dwarf conifer trees during spring season. In any region whether temperate or tropical, spring is the best season to grow Christmas tree.

However, conifers can grow very well in temperate and hilly regions.

Potting Mix

Conifers love well drained loamy soil that is slightly acidic in nature. Most of the gardeners do this common mistake of growing conifers in clayey soil. And it results in bad health of the plant.

However, you can prepare potting mix with 40% normal garden soil + 30% river sand + 30% organic compost. You can also add half teaspoon Epsom salt and one tablespoon bone meal to this mixture.

Selection of Pot

In wild conifers can grow up to 40 feet in height, but the dwarf varieties does not grow much. Although, the roots requires space. Select medium to large sized pot depending on the height of the plant.

But, take care to have at least 3 to 4 drainage holes at the bottom to remove the excess water from the pot. Water logged or soggy soil can kill this plant.

Sunlight

A large size, mature tree can survive under direct sunlight. But a small one, probably up to 10 feet of height can not perform well under direct sunlight.

Choose a spot where your Christmas tree can receive at least 4 to 6 hours of bright indirect sunlight. Direct sunlight exposure can cause browning of the leaves. Periodically keep exposing every part of the plant to indirect sunlight by rotating your pots.

This will ensure proper vegetative growth of branches in all direction.

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Watering

Conifers love moist soil to grow but waterlogged soil can kill your plant. Avoid over watering and bad drainage in the pot. Generally it requires moderate watering.

Watering is the most important step to care for your Christmas tree. Excess and under watering, both can damage your tree. The best advise is to water only when the top layer of the soil becomes dry.

Fertilizers

Conifers are not heavy feeders, hence excess application of fertilizers can damage your tree. One more important point do not ever fertilize conifers during winter season. Spring to autumn is the best season to fertilize Christmas tree.

From spring season you can start fertilizing your tree with one to two handful of organic manure like vermicompost or any liquid fertilizer once after every 30 days. You can also add jeevamrut or waste decomposer.

Pest and Diseases

Pest and diseases like beetles, honey fungus, Phytophthora root rot, etc. can cause damage to your plant. To control honey fungus, remove the infected part of the plant and burn them. Spray neem oil on the infected portion after removing that portion.

Avoid water logging condition in pots to prevent your tree from Phytophthora root rot disease. Apply a pinch of any organic fungicide in the soil to prevent your tree from this disease.

Repotting

Conifers are slow growing plant. Hence it can take one to two years to grow up to a height so that you need to change the pot. However, the best sign for repotting time is the growth of roots coming outside from the drainage holes.

Whenever it happens, change the pot. Select a slightly bigger pot and try to transplant during the spring season using the potting mix for better results.

Author’s Note

I hope you must have understood the Christmas tree care guide very well. If you have any doubts regarding care tips then you can comment below. I will be happy to solve your query.

One more important tip, never cut the tip of the Christmas tree. It will not help in growth but will change the shape of the actual tree and it will not look good. Let the conifers grow naturally!