My Christmas tree is a long needle pine. How I planted my Christmas tree is first I took a little pot with small holes in the bottom, but you have to have the tray to put under it so the water won’t come out. Then you put a couple of rocks at the bottom and some sand. After that you put some soil in your pot and make a little hole in the soil to put your tree in. Then once you’ve done all that you water your plant and put more soil in the pot. My tree hasn’t really been growing; every week I measure it’s getting shorter! Its starting measurement was 102mm. And now after five weeks it’s 85mm! Its now week seven and the height of my tree is still 85mm. I think my tree is dying. I still need to bring in a pot though to move my tree to a bigger place.

My tree started out to be very healthy; it was pretty tall and had some long needles. When we first planted them we had to put in rocks at the bottom and then we had to add a little bit of sand. Finally we added the dirt. We watered them and we took our first measurements of the width of the trunk, the height of the trunk, and the length of a pine needle. After a couple of weeks my pine needles started to turn into a dark greenish color. I am still watering it and will probably move it into a bigger pot before next week. Right now my tree in standing at 40mm tall 4mm wide and 35 mm long for the pine needle length.

On October 17th my 7th grade class planted Long leaf  Pine trees as a project. We started by putting small rocks in the bottom of our pots, and then we put sand and then potting soil. Then we stuck out little trees into our pots. Then we observed the: Height of the trunk, length of needles (large and small), and the width of the trunk. My tree was 90mm in height, 45mm (large) 30mm (small) this is the length of needles, and 2mm in width of the trunk. Each plant got gave direct sunlight. My plant is so big now it is 99mm height, 48mm (large) 32mm (small) needles, and 3mm width.

My tree blog:

October 17, 2011 I got my tree. It was 75mm high, average pine 17mm, and 3mm wide.
It looked dead and short but I was glad to get one.

October 24, 2011 I forgot to water it so ”I’m dying!” it yelled. It measured the same except for the pines measured 19mm.

Oct 31 He looked ok. He measured 75mm tall, pine 19mm and the rest the same. I’m so proud!

Nov 7 – December 5, 2011 everything the same but it looks dead.

On October 17 we began to grow longleaf pine trees in class.  At first it looked all good, 90 mm high on the trunk, 33.1 average needle height, and 3 mm wide.  On day 8 it was 2 mm higher on the trunk, but same everywhere else.  On day 15 all was the same, if anything it might have been shrinking!  It held strong for another couple weeks.  Until after Thanksgiving it began to die, it was losing needles like crazy!  I am trying my hardest to keep it alive.  Wish me luck!  We have had it for about 41 days; I hope it lasts until Christmas.

When I first started out with my pine tree it was as healthy as ever!  I thought nothing could go wrong.  Boy was I wrong! 10/17/11 is when I first made an observation of my pine tree.  I measured the height of the trunk: 35mm, the length of the pine needles: 50mm, and the width of the trunk: 2mm.  Everything went downhill from there.  My tree stayed the same, and I watered it regularly.  in reviving it! Then it started turning browner and browner.  My pine tree is barely holding on to life.  Wish me luck

My tree is pretty lucky I didn’t get to plant it on the same day as the others. So one day when I was watering it. He started to uproot, and after he uprooted I thought he was a goner because I didn’t water him for about a week. So one day I thought he was dead but I still wet the soil and re-planted him. Now he is doing just fine and is pretty healthy. My tree is still doing fine he is doing very well. He is actually growing taller and taller. I have been seeing that he is experiencing new growth. New growth is spotted by light green pine needles.

I planted my tree about 2 months ago it was approximately 65 mm tall, 3 mm width of trunk and 15-20 mm needle length from side to side. Now it is about 71 mm tall, 3 and 3.75 mm with 22-29 mm needle length from side to side. Let’s just hope it survives to see Christmas. If it dies it will be a sad loss.

When I first planted my Christmas tree, it was brown with very little green. I took a clear cup and put a few small pebbles and put them on the bottom of my cup. Then I poured some sand over the pebbles and added soil top layer. Then I put a water pan on the bottom of my cup. I then watered my tree and placed it under sunlight. When the tree grows larger I will put it in a larger pot for root space. My Christmas tree is growing somewhat larger, but is slowly dying off. To help prevent the death of my Christmas tree I added water. Since then, my tree is growing nicely. A while after though, I realized that some more needles kept falling off. I added some more water and after that things are normal, with some dying of the tree.

When we planted our long needle pines we first put rocks and sand on the bottom of a small pot and then added soil. We watered them and placed them in front of a window directly facing the sun. Every Monday we water and observe them. We record the length of the needle, the length and width of the stem, and the biggest change since the previous week. Some of the plants have changed dramatically. They have gotten longer and very green. Although most are doing great, some have begun to whither and darken, like my tree for example. In the beginning my plant was one of the best ones, but over the weeks it has begun to die. The roots don’t have enough room to tap the water so I’m going to bring a bigger pot in soon. Also, I think they need more sunlight. Most of the plants have already died and they are almost completely black. The ones that are withered are very skinny, whereas the stronger ones are thicker. We planted our trees on October 17^th, and this is now December 7, 2011. Our trees are not growing very well, so we have put them under a light in the classroom. Some are now doing better since the change. Three people have brought bigger pots in to see if that would help, but it hasn’t made a difference. Either way, I’m glad to have planted a real Christmas tree!