Green Christmas - Buying Real Christmas Trees

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Video Transcript

Christmas is in the air. Literally, I can actually smell it. After all, I am here at Big Tree plantation, a Christmas tree farm right outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Each year, thousands of people come here to cut down a Christmas tree to take home and decorate but now that eco-friendlies become so popular. Well, cutting down a tree now seemed wrong but is it?

I find it really hard to believe that cutting down a Christmas tree is bad for the environment but that is what I am here to find out even if it means ruining my dreams a fresh cut Christmas tree.

I am hitting the road searching for answers and finding great design. It is a quest of beauty, function, and of course, inspiration.

Female: Thank you for having us up here.

Male: You are welcome.

Female: It is so good to see you.

Male: Nice to see you again. You are serving hot chocolate.

Female: If we are going to talk about environmentally friendly. I have some thoughts since I was a little kid that you do not cut down a tree.

Male: So, most of us but most people do not realize that Christmas trees are grown on farms as a craft just to scorn and being done on other things and that we replaced the tree so we always continually growing, cutting, planting and that cycle just continue. So, we have about 50,000 trees down here and we sold out 4000 a year and every spring we plant and every Christmas we earn.

Female: So, because it is craft, they get renewed. It is not damaging the environment.

Male: That is right, actually this is one of the most favorable crafts because Christmas trees take in carbon dioxide which we all give off and they give us oxygen. An acre of trees and we are working about 8 acres here but an acre of trees supplies enough oxygen for eighteen people.

Female: I wonder why I breathe better up here.

Male: Yes.

Female: No, I am kidding.

Male: Yes, it is really plus the fact that you compare a live tree to an artificial tree and they have uses for both. I will not deny that but environmentally, the artificial tree is made from petroleum products. It does not biodegrade. We used our Christmas tree, matter of fact, we are at recycling point and we will use them in our late cocoons. We will chip them off and they get used whereas, we can not do that with the plastic petroleum based trees.

Female: If we are going to talk about how you grow the craft, how much water would you say is used like today? Do we take up a lot of water?

Male: The first couple of years, we bring up the water because they are inches small and so it seems like every year, whether it is two or three weeks or two or three months, it was this year, we have a month dry spells. And the little trees need it but once they get up to 3 feet tall then they are on their own and even in this rare drought that we have this year, all the trees you see here did not get any of this water except recontaining.

Female: I know a lot of people are concerned about pesticides. They used them on trees or any crops for that matter. Do Christmas trees require a lot?

Male: No, they do not require a lot. Do we use them? We used them very judiciously for many reasons. One, with effect of the chemicals, we are the ones that apply them. We do not want to be exposed to at any more than any one else but they are also very expensive and so we have earned a lot of what they call integrated pest management where we used our head and we used whatever means we can short of chemicals to control the problems. One interesting one is there is certain species that seem to attract every bug there is and so I have actually planted that species around my other trees because they are also insects. They are about official and these trees attract the benefits and I have to do much less spraying since I brought that indoor program.

Female: Wow! Check out my web site, AskTheDecorator.com. To discover more about this topic, read informative how-to articles or watch other videos from my trip. You will find a variety of helpful decorating advice when you stop by.