Anyone know how to keep the limbs open when sinking an artificial tree? I'm putting the jug on it to keep it vertical.

I would think you could zip ties and nylon rope them open somehow.

Thanks for the ideas. I might resort to that if I need to. Problem is there are so many limbs.Maybe weaving the nylon rope?

Any other suggestions? Or people who have done this before? I put a few in my last pond and learned a little as I made mistakes.First one fell to the side and the limbs closed stll good for minnows but not the area wanted. Second I put the bottle on and ffrom fish finder saw it standing vertical but most limbs closed. Third one I lost rack of in the 5 acre pond.

Keep er coming.

What about expanding foam them open or putting a shim in the holes? Much easier to just pick up real xmas tree after their use and sink them - IMO.

I do the real too. But found they breakdown in about 5 yr. They lose thier leaves yr 1 but are covered in tiny weeds already. So no effect by leave lose, but limbs break off and your best cover is the jug used to keep them vertical. Ideally I would add new real trees every year. The artificial do not break down. I do know however that crappie prefer real wood.

You could try staking them to lake bottom. Hammer 8 foot stake (largest I could find) in 5 or 6 foot depth, then tie tree (artificial or natural) to it. Either let it get waterlogged & sink, or tie cinderblock to base.

Won't tip over, you know exactly where it is, and you can easily add more over time.

I'm lazy. If you want more open areas in the limbs, I'd just cut out every other vertical row of limbs, or cut 2 rows, skip one, cut out 2 more. Maybe if just playing around with a handful of trees you can use many different methods to open the limbs, but remember how much of a fish hook magnet they are.

When dealing with 10's to 100's of Christmas trees, there isn't enough time in the day, just get them in the pond and move on.

Will the limbs come out? I have used pvc pipe and drilled holes all over and stuck Christmas tree limbs in the holes. I have actually made even horizontal cover that way too. Just a thought.