I recently found a piece of advice that its possible to stop cut Christmas
trees from shedding their needles by putting the base in a solution of water
with sugar and citric acid mixed 85/15. I can't recall the concentration
but it was fairly dilute.
I've no idea whether or not it works, but it seems that the rationale might
be to compensate in an extremely crude way for the loss of reserves stored
in the roots - after all starch is broken down into sugars.
After mulling this one over for while, with the aid of some seasonal
refreshments, it occurred to me that the solution is about the same chemical
composition as most fizzy soft drinks. If it does work it could be used to
ameliorate root damage in standing trees using a bobsausage filled with
seven up or similar fizz instead of water. You could even get commercial
sponsorship for this one and step up the Pepsi - Coke advertising war a bit.
Just a thought
Simon
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