How to care for your Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree Guide

Up here in Ohio it's starting to freeze. Matter of fact, it feels like it's freezing in my house right now. You know what that means. It's almost Christmas time! Many of you will decorate with a nice big beautiful Christmas Tree. So for those of you that prefer live trees, this is a short guide I put together to help you decide which one is best, how to get it home, and how to keep it green all winter long.

A – Obviously you're going to need to clear a space for it. So do that first. Tip: don't ever put a real tree near a source of heat. Especially a fireplace. You'd be surprised how many people think it's preferable and lose their home because of it.

B – Getting a healthy tree could make all the difference in how good it's going to look. So when you're out shopping for your Christmas tree, follow these guidelines for picking the right one:

• Make sure you measured right and you buy the right size. This may sound redundant but if you get it home and have to cut the lower branches off or hack the top off, it might look a little... diseased.

• Look for signs of unhealthiness in the tree. If it's got a lot of brown on it, try shaking it a bit or dropping it about one foot onto the stump and knock all of the dead needles off. This will also keep the needles from falling off at home and making a mess. Many tree farms have a “shaker” that does this for you, if you'd like. Don't be too concerned about a tree looking bare on the inside, this is normal.

Putting your tree in its stand

A When you choose your tree and get it home, the first thing you're going to want to do is cut about an inch off of the trunk. That will give you a nice fresh piece of wood that will take up water better as it's not dried out and dirty. If you don't have a saw available, you may want to ask the tree service where you bought it to do this for you. Do not cut it into a V or at an angle, this does not actually help the tree get more water, and it will also prevent you from getting it in the stand level. It is also untrue that drilling a hole in the base helps it take up water. Please avoid these wives-tales.

When putting the tree into the stand, there are a few things that you should do that you've probably never heard.

• Try to use the correct size of stand if possible. The better suited it is for your tree, the better the tree will fit, stay healthy, and stay green. A big mistake commonly made is scraping the bark off to make it fit in a stand that's too small. This is obviously not going to help the tree stay alive. Quite the opposite, actually. The outer layers of a trees bark are the most productive at water uptake. So they need to stay intact.

• Any fresh cut tree will still be taking up water after it has has been cut down. The common formula is each tree will take up about one liter of water a day per inch of trunk diameter. Keeping it watered is more important than you might think. If you let it run completely out of water, it could instantly change the amount of water the tree will actually take up. So keeping enough in the stand at all times is a must. Always use COLD water, and don't bother using chemicals. It's more hazardous than it's worth.

I will be making another post this week that will give you necessary information on how to make sure the tree is safe enough to keep in the house. 

Fall Pruning

It's finally starting to get cold! I don't know about you but I'm under a blanket as I'm writing this. That means that were getting close to Autumn, and that means it's almost time to bust out those shears, clippers, and trimmers.

You can trim anytime you want, but the best times to trim would be in the spring and the fall. The reason for this is that without leaves covering your trees and shrubs, you can deal directly with branches and limbs. This makes it easier to keep everything nice and tidy. Also it gives you the power to basically tell the tree where you want it to grow out and where you want it to let new growth in. Decorative trimming is not hard to do and just takes a little perspective and imagination. If you're looking for a cheap way to make your yard look awesome, trimming up shrubs like arborvitaes, junpiers, boxwoods and birdsnest spruces may be the best option.

How much did this cost? Probably a day of shaping. Worth it.

With the leaves being off the tree, it may also be easier for you to find any diseased or infected limbs and remove them. This works great with many different tree diseases because there are several diseases that reinfect the new leaves the next year. We don't want that. Not after all the work we've done to keep the diseases at bay. Look for discolored or spotted branches and remove them promptly. This may help get rid of an infection the next year or at least give the tree a chance to fight it off.

Now would also be a good time to increase the structural integrity of your trees. Some tips:

•  when you're trimming branches off not to trim them flush with the trunk. You want to leave about an inch of the only branch there. 
• if you want to stake a tree, the fall is the best time to do it because you can get further into the tree, making sure not to break any surrounding branches with the cables
• trimming off braches that grew irregularly, causing the tree to tip or bend can be trimmed off at "v crotches" along the main trunk. 

photos from nexus backgrounds

Rhizosphaera Needlecast

Rhizosphaera Needlecast

What is it?

Rhizosphaera Needlecast, or Rhizosphaera kalkhoffii, is a fungus that affects spruce trees, most commonly Colorado blue spruce. It usually doesn't kill tree, however it does make them look sick. This is particularly devastating to tree nurseries or Christmas tree farms.

What does it do?

A spruce tree that has no issues will normally keep its needles for around 6 years. When one becomes infected with Rhizosphaera Needlecast, however, it may only hold the infected needles for one year. As with other diseases of conifers, the fungus starts at the bottom of the tree and works its way up. The reason this happens is because the ground under the tree is more susceptible to growing and sheltering diseases than the tree itself. 

It starts off by infecting the new needles in May or June, however it usually will not be noticeable until spring the following year. This is when the needles on the lower branches get a somewhat purplish hue to them (see above picture), then die off and start dropping. The spring rain then splashes the infection onto healthy needles, which restarts the cycle. This can sometimes kill the lower branches of the tree.

Do you have it?

Your first hint at a Rhizosphaera Needlecast infection will be when you see needles that appear to be purple when the sun hits them. The best way to find out for sure if your trees have it is to look at the infected needles under a magnifying glass. If they have hairy looking black spots on them, then there's a pretty good chance you found your disease. These black spots are actually the breeding grounds of the fungus, waiting for the rain to take them somewhere else on the tree. Here's what it will look like:

Photo credit: ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3059.html

How to manage it:

As always, the best form of control is to know the disease before you buy a tree that might have it. If it's already in your yard, you're going to have to do a little more than that.

• If you have several spruce in your yard and only one of them is infected, make sure that you trim that tree last. The disease can be transmitted to the healthy trees just from the clippers. If you must trim your infected tree, be sure to trim that one last. Afterwards, sterilize your tools in a bucket of denatured alcohol for about 5 minutes.
• Try to keep the tree as healthy as possible. This includes vertical mulching, irrigation and aeration.
• Chemical: Since  Rhizosphaera Needlecast is a fungus, an applied fungicide could do wonders for your tree. Brands such as Daconil 2787 and Bravo might just do the trick for you. If you are goping to do it yourself, make sure to read all of the warnings and instructions. 
• Or you could always call your local tree care specialists.

Spidermites

A spidermite is a little, tiny bug in the arachnid family that is a massive pain to a lot of homeowners. These pests are capable of attacking just about any kind of plant material, from your spruces outside to your flowers inside. I was googling more information on them, and found out that it's a huge problem for people who have indoor grow rooms as well (shame, shame). Let's get the facts about spidermites:

• There are thousands of different species of spidermites, so diagnosing them is tricky.
• They are almost impossible to see with the unaided eye, making it trickier.
• They can be brown, yellow, red or green depending on the species and the season.
• They're certainly not easy to get rid of, but we're going to try to anyways.

 Southern Red Mite

Two-spotted mite

Source for pics: http://spidermite.info/

HOW TO SPOT SPIDERMITES: 

When you look at the underside of the leaves of your plant, you might see tiny, light colored flecks that almost look like dandruff on the plant. This is a good indication that you've got an early infestation. Granted, the type of plant will likely show different symptoms. Some examples, spidermites on an alberta spruce will look something like this:

While the same damage on an arborvitae will look like the botton leaf in this picture:

 And on a boxwood:

Pictures courtesy of http://woodypests.cas.psu.edu/FactSheets/InsectFactSheets/html/Spruce_Spider_Mite.html

The most noticable damage that I deal with in my day to day at work is the damage they do to spruces. They basically eat the tree from the inside out:

Source: http://treegreen.co/Pages/spider-mite.aspx

When spidermites start to injure any of these plants, the leaves/needles start turning a gold, gray, or bronze color. This makes matters worse because the changing color of the plant means it will be absorbing a different amount of sunlight than usual, most times scorching them and causing early leaf/needle drop.

There are a few ways to get rid of these pests, preferred tactics include:

 Chemical: if you are in or near any decent sized city, there is likely a tree company that can take care of this for you. If you're a DIY'r like myself, you can try using a horticultural oil or an insecticidal soap to trap them and their eggs, killing them off. As with any kind of chemical, make sure you read the labels. Also beware, some of these hoticultural oils can take the blue color out of a few species of spruces. Not a big deal, but something to think about.

The bully method (or mechanical, hehe): push um around! If your 5 foot spruce is covered in spidermites and you don't want them there, then do the logical thing. Grab a hose, put it on jet, and blast them out of the tree. While this does NOT kill a lot of them, it does give the predators in the grass more of a chance to catch them, giving your tree a brief respite. This method, if being used alone, should be done 2-3 times a week. Every time they set up camp, destroy it. 

Biological: Every creature on the planet is prey to another creature. Spidermites are no different. Their natural enemies are ladybugs, pirate bugs, other kinds of mites, and dusty wings. Unfortunately, by the time these predators start breeding and getting ready to take out the spidermites, the spidermites have already been breeding for a month or so. Therefor, it's not a very effective means of control to release more predators into your yard hoping for drastic effects.

Something else to remember, spidermites thrive on trees that are under stress from heat or drought. Easy way to fix that, though, just read my article about keeping your trees from heat stress: When/Why/How to Water!