.David: Hi, I am David Epstein. I ma here with John Moretti and we are talking sustainable Christmas trees, Christmas is over, the tree has all the decorations put away. The tree was in the house for seven to ten days. We want to acclimate it and get it in the ground because we are going to sense plant the trees so we do not end up throwing a tree away.
John: That is right, these trees need to transition from the warmth of indoors, so there is a serious step we take and it involves temperature.
David: You do not just take it from your 60 degree house or 70 degree house and put it outside.
John: What we would like to see is the tree brought out and put in to unheated garage or an outdoor shed or some place where the tree could start experiencing the outside cold without the exposure.
David: So John how long is that acclamation period, how many days would you do that?
John: Well, it would have to be at least two or three then the tree is ready to be brought outside and to be planted at that point.
David: Now let us say that you want a plant it outside. The grounds frozen or you have two or three inches are a foot of snow on the ground, where would you store this tree if you could not get it in the ground.
John: It would have to be stored in some building a garage or any out building where temperatures would get cold.
David: What about light if it is in the garage?
John: Light is not that critical, available lights through a window or even no light at all the tree can tolerate that and will be successfully transplanted later on.
David: Oh, interesting. Now the best thing is that you have either able to dig the hole or pre-dug the hole.
John: Pre-dig the hole, dig the whole where you want the tree planted after Christmas and then we recommend you put some hay in the hole to keep it from freezing over. The soil that is remove needs to go into a wheelbarrow and taking inside into a garage or some spot where that soil will not freeze into a hard pile and make it unusable after the holidays are over.
David: So you have your hole, you take the hay away that has been protecting it.
John: Yes.
David: Then what do you do, just take it right out of the pot or the root ball and plant it just the regular—?
John: Yes, it is pretty much it is—it could be a mayday at that point. You are planting the tree in the same manner you would, if this were a spring planting. You want to have some soil amendments available and you want to have some mulch available these products. It should be also put into the garage, so they are not frozen solid. And we plant the tree just as though that we were planting it in spring. It might be a good idea to put a couple of bucket to water on this unfrozen ground to thoroughly moisten it. Put the mulch on the plant just as though you would, same process as in the spring. After that nature will take care of the moisture.
David: All right, well \John thanks. That is great and hopefully we follow these instructions. This will be a sustainable tree planted in the ground and a life for many, many years to come. Thanks for checking us out here at growingwisdom.com and watch all of our videos, we have got hundreds for you here at growing wisdom.
