Pines have different indicators because of the fibrous nature of their needles compared to firs. Green needles on fresh trees break crisply when bent sharply with the fingers, much like a fresh carrot. Consumers should ask the retailer when he/she gets the trees: Are they delivered once at the beginning of the season, or does he/she obtain several shipments during the season? Often, a tree obtained soon after its arrival on the retail lot will be very fresh because it was cut recently.Do not place it near a heat source such as a register, fireplace or window where direct sunlight hits it. Choose the location of your tree carefully.An 8-foot tree can often “drink” a gallon of water per day. Check your stand twice daily – especially in the first week – and add water as necessary.This will open the capillaries, which allow the tree to draw moisture up the trunk and into the needles. When you’re ready to place it in a stand, cut one inch or more off the trunk.If you cut a tree at a farm, keep it fresh when you get it home by laying it on the ground out of the sun and wind until you are ready to put it in your house.The scientists caution that they have yet to scale up their experiment from single cut branches to whole trees, but "what is really encouraging is that we managed to double the needle retention period of the branches," says study co-author Seeve Pepin of the Universite Laval. Because AVG can be easily dissolved in the tree's supply of water, it's more likely to find use in the home. In their second test, they added amino-ethoxyvinylglycine (AVG), which inhibits the production of ethylene, to the water in which the fir branches sat. 1-MCP blocks ethylene receptors in the cell and is used by ornamental horticulture and apple industries to prolong the life of their products, and it could be used during the transport of Christmas trees from field to market. First they added 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) gas to the chamber where they had put cut fir branches in water. The researchers then tried two ways of interfering with the ethylene. And by 40 days after cutting, the branches were bare. In the balsam fir trees of the recent study, ethylene is produced around 10 days after the tree is cut and signals to the tree that it should drop its needles. That's the same molecule that ripens many fruits, and the reason why adding a ripe banana to a bag full of green tomatoes will turn them red. But these solutions don't address what the scientists now say is the cause of the needle loss: ethylene, a plant hormone. When the Mythbusters tested several of them-adding fertilizer, Viagra or bleach to the water, for example, or coating the entire tree with hairspray or polyurethane-most of the home remedies weren't much help, or they turned the tree a sickly color. There are plenty of myths advising how you can better keep the needles on your tree. Now scientists from Canada, reporting in the journal Trees, have figured out why those needles fall off, and they've come up with a couple of solutions that could keep needles on longer. No matter what you do, the tree is going to shed needles destined to become lodged in the bottom of your foot. You have to make sure that the tree has plenty of water, sometimes having to crawl beneath the branches while trying not to dislodge any of the breakable ornaments. Putting up a live Christmas tree can be a lot of work.
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