How To Root a Christmas Tree

Dig a hole in your garden where you want to root the Christmas tree, ideally before you even decorate it indoors. Over the holidays the ground could become too hard to dig, and preparing in advance avoids that difficultly. Leave the excess soil in a wheelbarrow, bucket or under a tarpaulin where it can be kept for reuse later.

Prepare to root the tree after two weeks of having it indoors. If you wait longer, you risk killing the tree when it is rooted outside, because it will have become too accustomed to the warmth inside. At the end of the two weeks, take it outside. If you can take it outside before that, then do so.

Once you have removed the Christmas tree from its position in your house, wrap its root in a burlap sack or bury it in straw. You need to keep the roots moist so the tree does not die. Transfer the tree outside and cover it in more burlap or newspaper so it can acclimate to outdoor weather conditions before it is rooted. Leave it covered between three and four days.

Uncover the tree and place the root ball in the hole you prepared in step one. You may need a helper to maneuver the tree if it is big and heavy. As you do so, check whether there is any string wrapped around the roots. If there is, cut it off. Be careful not to plant it too deeply --- keep a maximum of one to two inches between the top of the root ball and the soil. You increase the chance that it will die if you bury the root ball deeper than it was in the nursery it came from.

Fill in the area around the root ball with the soil you kept in storage. Stamp down the soil, using your foot to check that it is secure. Then water the Christmas tree so the ground is moist. Water it regularly throughout the year to prevent it from drying out.