Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Question on Christmas trees

Is there a preferred way to anchor and orient Christmas trees as structure? Horizontal or vertical? Side by side or piled on top of each other? I am placing the trees on the pond bottom before the water fills up, so any configuration is possible. If the bottom of the tree trunk is anchored to a cinder block, I assume the tree will float up and stand upright in the water. Correct? The more vertical the cover the better, in my mind.

I get kind of anal about this. I stand one tree straight up in the center, then angle 4 out around it (kind of like pedals around a flower). I wire them together with 9 wire pushed through holes drilled in the trunks. Then cement the trunks together. The 4 sticking out to the side keep it from rolling or tipping while in the water. If fishing from bank you can cast to the central upright tree and bring it back through trees that are facing you. Lessens snags. If fishing from a boat the structure gives a ton of pockets for vertical jigging.

Get 8x8x16 inch cinder blocks, take Trunk of the xmas tree and stick it through one of the cinder block holes, then take a small piece of 2x4 maybe 12" inches long and nail it the the exposed trunk of the xmas tree. Now the xmas tree will not pull from block, easy peasy.

^^^^ I did this except I used a 6"-8" diameter loop over the pipe, that way the rope can slide down the pipe as the Christmas trees get waterlogged and sink.

We have 15 or so 4x4 posts scattered around the lake (50 acres). We rebrush them every couple of years. This past summer I towed 30' cedars out to most of them and tied them off. Green cedars will sink pretty quickly. Bone dry cedar will almost never sink on its own. 30' cedars over 6" at the base are all my boat will tow and those I have to tow backwards. I can take a couple of hours to tow them 1/4 mile.

Ross, glad you posted re cedars. Assuming that we get rain, I’ll restock again this year. Cormorants have hit me 2 years in a row. So has drought. I’ll add a lot more and larger cedars next month. About to put a couple of grown grandsons butts to work.

How do you put out the fire?

I just do one tree at a time. It flashes up and burns the brown off almost instantly. What's left is some small twigs on the ends that are starting to burn at that point but the meat of the wood hasn't caught yet because the foliage burns so quick. A hose and sprayer easily takes care of it at that point.

I like to do that, works better that way in my theory, Ive done it without but they just become a huge glob of moss.

It's much easier to sink cedars green than dry. Ours are most productive the first year they are down. I don't see any advantage to burning off the folage and small twigs.