Homemade Tree Preservative
11/30/03
Have your supplies on hand before you buy the tree. You need a pint container of clear Karo syrup, chlorine bleach, kitchen vinegar and 20-Mule-Team Borax. Into a two-gallon container, pour a gallon of hot water from the faucet, then a pint of clear Karo syrup, 4 ounces of liquid chlorine bleach, 2 ounces of kitchen vinegar, and a half-teaspoon of 20-Mule-Team Borax. Stir to homogenize ingredients, then add more hot water (approximately another gallon).
Rest the tree on the ground, then use a saw to remove an inch of the tree trunk at the base. Stand tree trunk in the solution in an enclosed garage, otherwise a protected spot outdoors where the wind won’t topple the tree from the container. The tree must stay in the preservative five days before it can be moved indoors and decorated. How does this homemade preservative work? By making a fresh cut at the base of the tree trunk, you make it easy for vertical food channels (xylem) in the trunk to absorb the preservative and move it to all needles and healthy branches of the evergreen. The first ingredient absorbed by xylem tubes is borax (boron to the evergreen). In a matter of hours, borax is moved to every living cell of the tree, regardless of its distance from the base of the trunk. Once in place, boron instructs the tree to move sugar to these living cells. Your source of sugar is the glucose provided by the corn syrup (Karo syrup). Immediately, glucose begins moving through the same xylem tubes. Because glucose is dissolved in water, water quickly moves upward through the xylem tubes to reach all living cells. In five days, your cut Christmas tree contains more water than when it was actively growing at the tree farm. With water filling every needle and branch, the tree won’t be a hazard in the house, regardless of how long it’s decorated and kept indoors.
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