Saving the Christmas tree
22 Dec 2010 by Evoluted New Media
Your living room floor is awash with needles from the Christmas tree because the plant hormone ethylene causes the tree to shed its needles say researchers, who have also discovered treating the festive icon with AVG prolongs its life.
Your living room floor is awash with needles from the Christmas tree because the plant hormone ethylene causes the tree to shed its needles say researchers, who have also discovered treating the festive icon with AVG prolongs its life.
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Scientists discover how to make your Christmas tree last longer |
Researchers from the Université Laval and Nova Scotia Agricultural College placed branches from the balsam fir in containers of water inside a growth chamber. After 10 days the branches began to produce ethylene – also known as ethene, C2H4 – three days later the needles fell off. After 40 days in the chamber the branches were bare.
In order to ensure needle loss was due to ethylene, the researchers used two chemical compounds –1-MCP and AVG – to interfere with the hormone. Needle retention rose to 73 day for branches exposed to 1-MPC and 87 days with branches treated with AVG.
“By day 40, the branches that had been treated were still green, tender and fresh-looking, while the untreated branches had lost virtually all their needles, explained Steeve Pépin, co-author of the study.
The finding could have significant impacts for Christmas tree producers said Pépin: “Since 1-MPC is a gas, it would be feasible to release it into the trucks used to ship the trees.”
He also believes consumers could dissolve AVG into the water added to the tree stand to help prolong the tree’s lifespan indoors.
“What is really encouraging is that we have managed to double the needle retention period of the branches,” Pépin said, “However, we still have to prove that we can transpose these finding to the entire tree.”
