Imalismom
11-08-2007, 07:23 PM
FIREPROOFING THE CUT CHRISTMAS TREE
Materials needed: Karo syrup from the grocery store, epsom salt from the drug store, Borax from the grocery store, liquid chlorine bleach, and a small packet of chelated iron (it's pronounced KEY-lated) from the garden shop or plant store. You'll also need a two-gallon bucket.
How to choose a fresh tree:
Keep in mind that most trees are cut six to ten weeks before you see them in your neighborhood. That's one problem, but the other is going to hamper your choosing the right tree. Most Christmas trees today are "sprayed" with a green dye at the Christmas tree farm a week or two before they are cut and shipped to market. This dye is sprayed on all the trees, the good and the bad, making it difficult to tell which is a healthy tree and which is not.
Here's what you do:
Find a tree that you are interested in buying, then find a "bad" side of the tree and try to snap a very small branch with your fingers. Preferably, this should be at the bottom of the tree because this is the first place that water would be in short supply. If it snaps easily, then the tissue is dead. DON'T BUY THAT TREE!
If it doesn't snap easily, that is a good indicator that the tree is healthy. Once you’ve snapped the small branch, look at the woody tissue under the bark. If the color is white or a pale green, then the tissue is alive and the tree is healthy. If the wood looks brown or close to it, that means the tissue is in the process of dying, in which case you do not want to buy it.
1. Once you get home, get a saw and IMMEDIATELY make a fresh cut at the base of the tree trunk. This is mandatory for any tree you’ve bought. Go down about an inch ABOVE the bottom of the trunk and make a fresh, level cut with your saw.
2. Consider a place for storing your tree because, ideally, you should be buying your tree at least 10 days before Christmas. If it’s longer than that, fine, but don’t buy it at the last minute and expect to have it fireproofed before it goes in the house. An ideal place would be the garage, a carport, possibly a balcony for apartment dwellers…any place where the tree will be protected from the wind.
3. Immediately after making your cut at the bottom of the tree trunk, mix your homemade preservative.
Into a two-gallon bucket, add HOT WATER from the kitchen faucet. Fill the bucket with hot water to within an inch or so of the top of the bucket. Then, into the hot water, add the following ingredients:
…two cups of Karo syrup
…two ounces of liquid chlorine bleach
…two pinches of Epsom salt
…one-half teaspoon of Borax
…one teaspoon of chelated iron
Stir these ingredients thoroughly in the bucket, then immediately stand the trunk of the tree in this solution. Leave the tree in the bucket until the day comes when you want to take the tree indoors for decoration.
4. Once you get your tree into its tree stand, decorate it, and have it in its final resting place, get the bucket filled with your ingredients and fill the well of the tree stand right up to the top.
5. Everyday, without exception, someone MUST KEEP THE WELL OF THE TREE STAND FILLED WITH THE SOLUTION FROM YOUR 2-GALLON BUCKET.
Sooo….how can the tree be fireproofed this way?
The Karo syrup provides the sugar, and it is only in the presence of sugar that tremendous amounts of water will be taken up by the exposed tissue at the base of the tree trunk. Without the sugar, only the smallest bit of water will be absorbed. However, in the presence of sugar, you can expect more than one and one-half gallons of the water to be absorbed by the tree during the 10-14 day period that the tree is exposed to your preservative.
Thanks to the boron you have supplied (in the Borax), the water and sugar will be moved to every needle and branch of your tree.
Then, there’s the Epsom salt and chelated iron. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, and magnesium (together with iron) are the center of the molecules in the process we know as chlorophyll production. By making the magnesium and iron available to the tree, you’re assuring yourself of green needles, even if the tree was not sprayed at the tree farm before it was shipped to market.
As for the chlorine bleach, chlorine stops a mold from forming when water and sugar stand for any period of time.
The benefits to preserving your tree this way?
1. Your tree will be SOAKING WET with water, in fact, at least 800% more water than when the tree was growing in the forest.
2. The tree will not become a fire hazard.
3. No needles will drop, no matter what variety of evergreen you are displaying in your house. At the same time, the tree will give off a fragrance like that which you’ve sensed when walking through a forest of evergreens.
Materials needed: Karo syrup from the grocery store, epsom salt from the drug store, Borax from the grocery store, liquid chlorine bleach, and a small packet of chelated iron (it's pronounced KEY-lated) from the garden shop or plant store. You'll also need a two-gallon bucket.
How to choose a fresh tree:
Keep in mind that most trees are cut six to ten weeks before you see them in your neighborhood. That's one problem, but the other is going to hamper your choosing the right tree. Most Christmas trees today are "sprayed" with a green dye at the Christmas tree farm a week or two before they are cut and shipped to market. This dye is sprayed on all the trees, the good and the bad, making it difficult to tell which is a healthy tree and which is not.
Here's what you do:
Find a tree that you are interested in buying, then find a "bad" side of the tree and try to snap a very small branch with your fingers. Preferably, this should be at the bottom of the tree because this is the first place that water would be in short supply. If it snaps easily, then the tissue is dead. DON'T BUY THAT TREE!
If it doesn't snap easily, that is a good indicator that the tree is healthy. Once you’ve snapped the small branch, look at the woody tissue under the bark. If the color is white or a pale green, then the tissue is alive and the tree is healthy. If the wood looks brown or close to it, that means the tissue is in the process of dying, in which case you do not want to buy it.
1. Once you get home, get a saw and IMMEDIATELY make a fresh cut at the base of the tree trunk. This is mandatory for any tree you’ve bought. Go down about an inch ABOVE the bottom of the trunk and make a fresh, level cut with your saw.
2. Consider a place for storing your tree because, ideally, you should be buying your tree at least 10 days before Christmas. If it’s longer than that, fine, but don’t buy it at the last minute and expect to have it fireproofed before it goes in the house. An ideal place would be the garage, a carport, possibly a balcony for apartment dwellers…any place where the tree will be protected from the wind.
3. Immediately after making your cut at the bottom of the tree trunk, mix your homemade preservative.
Into a two-gallon bucket, add HOT WATER from the kitchen faucet. Fill the bucket with hot water to within an inch or so of the top of the bucket. Then, into the hot water, add the following ingredients:
…two cups of Karo syrup
…two ounces of liquid chlorine bleach
…two pinches of Epsom salt
…one-half teaspoon of Borax
…one teaspoon of chelated iron
Stir these ingredients thoroughly in the bucket, then immediately stand the trunk of the tree in this solution. Leave the tree in the bucket until the day comes when you want to take the tree indoors for decoration.
4. Once you get your tree into its tree stand, decorate it, and have it in its final resting place, get the bucket filled with your ingredients and fill the well of the tree stand right up to the top.
5. Everyday, without exception, someone MUST KEEP THE WELL OF THE TREE STAND FILLED WITH THE SOLUTION FROM YOUR 2-GALLON BUCKET.
Sooo….how can the tree be fireproofed this way?
The Karo syrup provides the sugar, and it is only in the presence of sugar that tremendous amounts of water will be taken up by the exposed tissue at the base of the tree trunk. Without the sugar, only the smallest bit of water will be absorbed. However, in the presence of sugar, you can expect more than one and one-half gallons of the water to be absorbed by the tree during the 10-14 day period that the tree is exposed to your preservative.
Thanks to the boron you have supplied (in the Borax), the water and sugar will be moved to every needle and branch of your tree.
Then, there’s the Epsom salt and chelated iron. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, and magnesium (together with iron) are the center of the molecules in the process we know as chlorophyll production. By making the magnesium and iron available to the tree, you’re assuring yourself of green needles, even if the tree was not sprayed at the tree farm before it was shipped to market.
As for the chlorine bleach, chlorine stops a mold from forming when water and sugar stand for any period of time.
The benefits to preserving your tree this way?
1. Your tree will be SOAKING WET with water, in fact, at least 800% more water than when the tree was growing in the forest.
2. The tree will not become a fire hazard.
3. No needles will drop, no matter what variety of evergreen you are displaying in your house. At the same time, the tree will give off a fragrance like that which you’ve sensed when walking through a forest of evergreens.