How Long Can You Keep a Live Christmas Tree Indoors?

If you want a live Christmas tree, plan ahead and take steps to help it prosper after the holiday season.

Reader Contribution by Vicki Mattern
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I’d like to buy a live Christmas tree this year to plant after the holidays. How long can you keep a live Christmas tree indoors, and how do you plant a balled Christmas tree?

Bringing Home Your Balled Christmas Tree

Visit your local garden center in fall while the selection is still good, and choose a potted or balled-and-burlapped (B&B) tree suited to your growing conditions. Many retailers will let you buy a live Christmas tree in fall and pick it up later, closer to the holiday season. When choosing a potted tree, lift the root ball out of the pot to examine the roots — they should be developed enough to hold the soil together without being pot-bound.

Choose a planting site that has good drainage and is far enough away from buildings and other trees to allow for future growth. Dig the planting hole before the soil is expected to freeze. In some areas, that will be before the holidays. Make the hole about the same depth but twice the width of the root ball. Until planting time, store the soil from the hole in a location where it won’t freeze, and fill the hole with straw.

  • Updated on Nov 14, 2022
  • Originally Published on Jul 5, 2013
Tagged with: Christmas tree, potted tree, Reader Contributions, Vicki Mattern
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