Using copper is an old wives tale. So is using brass. The amount of those metals in hardware is so slight, it won't affect the tree. But also think about it this way. If you were able to gather enough copper to kill the tree, you are basically poisoning it, and the ground surrounding it, since it would leech out of the root system and into your ground. Then it will filter into your water table, possibly poisoning and contaminating everything around it.

I would do what Steve said, cut a branch or two you like and lay them out in the sun for a few months to dry out.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela