NEED HELP FAST, need this for Christmas tree now!

[msbsgblue]

Several years ago, I had a recipe with 4 ingredients to use in Christmas tree stand to preserve a cut tree so that you could plant and root it later.

Three of the ingredients were:

Hot water
Light Karo Syrup
Bleach

The fourth ingredient I "think" was some sort of rooting compound, a simple ingredient bought perhaps at the garden center or drug store.

After the tree was used, you could beat the bottom on the trunk until pulpy and plant the tree and it would root and grow.

Anyone here know this recipe?

[TennOC]

Won't work. The tree would be waaayyy to large in the top for it to root. You might root a cutting IF it was small and IF it was cut right after the tree was cut and not kept in a stand for weeks. Sorry, but if you want a rooted tree you should get a "balled-in-burlap" tree next year. Welcome to the board.

[msbsgblue]

Oh but it did work twice. I planted a blue spruce about 40 years back after it had been in the solution in the house for 2 weeks.

It was about 5 feet tall. I did turn brown that winter and we continued to water it. Next spring it begin to green up and 20 years later we took the kids back to see a very beautiful majestic tree.

I have done this twice and it worked both times. A man from the Mo Conservation Dept gave me the recipe way back then.

[trudy]

Thats interesting, would it have been some sort of growth hormone? Like root tone, or willow water? I hope u find it. trudy

[douglas]

Hmmm, can't see how this could werk but I guess their is always a first time. I watched Myth Busters a few weeks ago and they tried an experiment on a few trees with all these ideas to keep the needles on the trees. All of them failed except plain old water wit nothing mixed at all. I tried sugar, syrup, bleach, and other things but the tree dried out much faster

[Pharmer Phil]

I agree with Douglas..
Pholks:
There isn't a "magic" solution to preserve your tree.
Get them early, before they sit for weeks, cut off at Least an inch from the bottom
and keep it watered.

a good "hint" as to how they are going to do is:
when you cut off the stump, to get a fresh end...If, by the time you get ready to put it in the stand, there is NO SAP OOZING from the fresh cut...your tree is just plain old DEAD

Now, as for rooting the tree, once it has fullfilled the Decorative assignment...

I have seen it work, but it's a shot in the dark,

I have rooted smaller trees, or as TennOc said, a cutting (from a frsh limb "tip") rot.e

To enhance your possibility of success do the following:
Make sure the needles at the TOP HALF of the tree are still soft, pliable, and WILL NOT pull loose easily.

Remove the tree from the stand

and Make a new cut..this time, take at very least 6" off the stump.

make additional verticle scores with a knife, into the bark, about a inch or so apart around the trunk.
This will facilitate increased uptake of rooting hormones, be it a compound or willow water.

then place the tree in the ground, or a large planter, making sure the soil is loose and friable.


I would water with willow water, alternatly, use a rooting compound, that is made for HARDWOOD CUTTINGS!
there are different grades of rooting compounds pholks, garden centers will have them keyed to softwood and hardwood cuttings.

Which ever you use, make sure the verticle scores are buried in the soil, and not exposed.

You may get a tree to root.

It always amazes me how sometimes something will work, other times no matter what you try...it won't!

[msbsgblue]

We mixed that compound, whatever it was, right into the solution that the tree was kept inside with.

The problem is, I don't remember the exact ingredient.

[douglas]

Might be the same stuff they give out with cut flowers you buy at the florist

[bscamo]

Tanks Phil & others fer your replies !!!!

I searched hi & I searched lo for rooting hormone or compound. All I found here is : Green Light Rooting Hormone.

We're trying it & crossing our phingers...

FYI , Douglas , most phlorists preservative packets contain mostly powdered aspirin......That does preserve and prolong cut flowers but I don't think it stimulates any kind of growth.

Now the question I have is the should the tree be planted at night so that there is a better chance oph success or so that no one sees me ?

[douglas]

I would question your location first weather your getting hot or cool temps, most plants get off to a good start when the temps are not so hot stressing them out

[bscamo]

Thanks , Douglas. The daytime temps here are running between 20 and 34 F up here currently. I'm hoping that's not too cold.

I did forget to ask one dumb question.....

What the hey and where do ya find willow water ?

[douglas]

I use to have that stuff a while back from a lady we knew, not sure where you can find it

[jack]

Gidday

Msbsgblue, it's amazing how some folks don't believe some things even when you have seen it work yourself Eh!

If you do get the formula worked out please let us know.

[TennOC]

Think about it. If there was a way to root a Christmas tree with a good chance of making it work, we'd be bombarded by ads for the "kit" for "only four payments of $19.95" or some such for a month before Christmas every year. I know, it's a sentimental thing. Everybody would like to root that pretty tree, but rooting a whole tree is just not gonna happen by putting something in the water. The entire nursery business is waiting for that miracle formula....

[douglas]

I would have to agree with you on that, I can hardly get a willow branch to root in spring

[bscamo]

All kidding aside , here's why I'm trying this even though we don't have the exact formula. I'm very familiar with the "if it could be done , it would be done...." attitude.

Here's some examples of things I've seen done but are only utilized on a limited basis.

I've ridden in several alcohol-fueled vehicles. Every one produced little or no air pollution. The most efficient one I rode in was a Chevy Vega that was modified to run on vaporized alcohol. On flat ground , it went 25 miles on a QUART of alcohol.

I've seen a working solar powered still. A small farmer here designed , patented , and built a full-sized working unit. After the last time he refused to sell it to "the powers that be...". ....He , his family , the still , plans , and patents disappeared from the face of the earth. Everything else was left behind on their small farm. They only had the clothes on their backs.

And how about a plant that makes excellent rope and linen. It also has the ability to relieve pain more effectively , with less side effects , and much lower costs than expensive RX's.

When anything that will have a negative impact on the people of money and power surfaces , it tends to be squelched.

So if a cut Christmas tree can planted & grown for a cost of less than $10 , it's worth the experiment.

[jack]

Gidday

Good onya mate.

There is such a thing as cold fusion which has been achieved by scientist and has produced up to 600 times more energy than was put in in the form of electricity. When this was reported in our newspapers in the early 1990's it was dubbed as fusion in a tea cup because it was done in such small vesels that the whole experiment was done on an ordinary work bench in a lab. Now 600 times more energy out than in and to be achieved on a benchtop ain't too bad for a start to gettin rid of the need for fossil fuels.

Then there was a young joker called Pacheco from Bolivia who in 1943 made a hydrogen generator. It was small enough to go under the bonnet of a car but he was prevented from developing it because it was said there was enough oil and it was cheap enough to make his invention not worth while.

Then there was another joker called Sam Leach of Los Angeles who in the 1970's made a hydrogen geneator small enough to go under the bonnet of a car and the rights to that were bought by M.J.
Mirkin. But that one was never developed any further either.

Then in 1994 a young joker called Dylan Whitford had the sh!t beaten out of him in Wanganui and never said another word about the water fueled engine he had something to do with.

And again, a 30 year old New Zealand mechanic M. Malcolm Vincent of Nelson sold the rights to a water powered engine for $25,600,000. He was luck because he took the money and ran.

And I remember reading in the news paper of a bloke from Taranaki who converted an old car to run on water. He was reported to drive from New Plymouth to Auckland and back with nothing but tap water being put into the car. A few weeks later he was killed in a car accident that look suspicious. His son got the car and was still driving around in it for a while and then he had a bloody big truck run into him and nearly killed him. The car dissapeared and he was smart enough never to talk about it again.

And what happened to the car that Robert Alexander made, that ran without any fuel at all. U.S. patent No. 3913004.

So you see, if you do enough digging you can find that many things are possible with alternative energy, but it just won't be safe to make too much of them untill all that bloody oil does run out.


So Bscamo, I'm with you on this one. When you get that there tree growin please tell me how.

[jeanette]

if we listened every time someone said something couldn't be done, we'd still be living in caves...so what if it doesn't work, you gave it a shot, and if it does... score!!!

[strongtower9]

Thats my motto..."it could happen" !!!

[bscamo]

Today we took down and planted the christmas tree. I don't know if it will grow or not. Even though we did not have the "exact" recipe , I can tell you that this was the freshest tree I ever took down & out. Very few dropped needles where it stood and even less on the "drag" outside to the planting hole. I was impressed! And I've been involved in removing over 40 christmas trees in my life...