How to: Caring for Live Potted Christmas Trees

'Tis the season for festive foliage, and what better way to bring the holiday spirit indoors than with a live potted Christmas tree? Caring for these evergreen beauties goes beyond the requirements of the traditional cut tree experience but it offers a chance to nurture a living symbol of holiday cheer year round. Your family will grow and prosper year-on-year with your potted tree. Your live tree will truly become apart of the family.
To keep your potted Christmas tree thriving throughout the season, it's crucial to strike the right balance between festive adornments and proper care. This guide will ensure your living Christmas tree not only sparkles with decorations but also flourishes with life well beyond the holiday season.

Preparing to move your tree inside and transformation into a Christmas tree.

So you want to drag it inside for a month or longer? And hang ornaments all over it? Well, I have some bad news, a month or longer inside just simply won’t work. These trees need full sun to survive and no matter how light and bright your home is, it simply wont be enough.
Your tree should spend no more than two - three weeks inside.

Before moving your Christmas tree indoors.

A day or two before you bring your tree inside give it a deep watering and let it completely drain through. The idea is that you don’t water it while it’s inside, unless you have to.

To avoid bringing bugs and insects into your home you may wish to spray your tree with an organic neem based pesticide, especially if its been sitting in the garden apart of a natural eco system. Neem oil will also give your tree’s foliage a glossy fresh appearance

Do not fertilise your tree before bringing it indoors. Your Christmas tree won’t have the ability to photosynthesise in your home as it wont be getting the light requirements it needs, thus it wont be feeding on any nutrients you provide. To fertilise at this time is a waste of product and money, it could also burn your plants roots depending on the strength of the product you’re using.

Setting your Christmas tree up inside.

Finding a good position indoors is essential to helping it through the trauma of becoming your beautiful Christmas tree. Avoid heating and cooling vents these will dry your plant out quickly. If you can provide as much natural light as possible your tree will thank you for it and depending on how much light you can provide the longer you can keep your Christmas tree indoors

The fun bit! Decorating your tree! Select lightweight ornaments and decorations, These are real trees with real branches that may not be able to support heavy glass or ceramic ornaments. its a good idea to decorate your tree sparsely as to let as much light as possible it the trees foliage.

Issues you may notice while your tree is inside could include; Foliage starting to go floppy or loose colour in its needles, this is perfectly normal. Trees dislike being taken from a wonderful full sun position to a dark home and this is how they will express their discomfort. Be very careful not to mistake these symptoms for your tree needing extra water. Your tree won’t be using anywear near as much water as it would outside and if over watering occurs you’ll easily cause root-rot (phytophthora.) Check the potting soil with your finger or moisture meter to determine if it does need watering. Allow the top 1/3 of soil to dry out between waterings.

Moving your Christmas tree outside

After the fun of the holidays is over its time to transition your tree back outside. Don’t delay this, do it as soon as you can.

Remove all your decorations and before moving it back outside. Transition it back outside by leaving in a part-shade position for a couple of days. This will help it adjust by easing it back outside. Particularly in the Australian summer, moving it directly back to full sun could spell disaster for your potted friend.

Now it is time to give it a deep watering, some organic plant food and some seaweed solution to help it recover from the pomp and pageantry of Christmas with the family. Do this as you move it back to its full sun position.

Year Round Care Tips.

Even though you have purchased a tree as a living potted Christmas tree it does require year round care. From January through to November Its simply a potted tree. To keep your tree looking its best for the festive season some extra work needs to happen through-out the year.

Placement & Position - Full Sun, Even Light.

Almost all of the trees species that fit the bill of a Christmas tree actually need to grow outside in a full sun position. Although you’ve purchased your tree to be inside during the holiday season if left inside all year your tree will die from lack of light.

Your tree needs a full sun position with even light. Full sun means a position that gets a minimum of 6 hours of direct sun light each day, the more the merrier. Even light refers to the plant being able to get the light from all aspects. So not having your tree pushed up against other plants on one side or on a hill side where it will only get morning sun blocked from afternoon sun. if you provide uneven light for your plant you will end up with uneven growth and a poorly formed tree next holiday season.

Watering

Most plants do not like wet feet so make sure whatever pot you have your tree in you has great drainage.

When watering always check the soil before hand. Root rot or phytophthora is a big concern. Be sure the top 1/3 of the soil has dried out between waterings. during hot and windy days additional watering may be needed.

Older or cheap potting mix can become hydrophobic meaning when you water the water drains down the sides of the pot and not actually wet the soil your tree is in. Soak your pot on a bucket of water and a seaweed solution till you no longer see any air bubbles rising from the pot.
After this resume watering as normal.

Fertilising & Feeding.

Sea weed solution is always a great addition to potted plants applying every month or so will aid in healthy root development as well as keeping your foliage bright and happy.

Year round, Use a potted plant slow release fertiliser. This will look like little prills that slowly break down over time. These type of products give you ease of mind, knowing your tree will be fed and happy year round.

Compost - You can feed your tree with compost and organic matter but be aware that compost is full of live and will break down the rests of your potting mix more quickly. If you are willing to keep topping your potting mix up year round then go for it. I’d avoid fresh compost applications a month or two before you move your tree inside.

Potting Up Your Christmas Tree

If you have a fast growing species you’ll want to re-pot your tree once every year or two. Pot your tree up in spring a good 2-3 months before you move your tree inside. We do this as your tree will be in its active growing phase and will recover happily before its traumatic move inside for the holidays. WARNING: don’t pot your tree up directly before or after its time inside as a Christmas tree. It will cause it way too much stress and you’ll risk loosing the tree.

THE POT - When potting up, only pot it up one pot size at the time and keep your tree in a black plastic nursery pot. It will make it easier to move and repot when needed.
Your pot should have great drainage. Our trees do not like wet feet or sit in water so make sure whatever pot you choose it has great drainage.

POTTING MIX - This tree is your pride and joy! Always use the best potting mix you can afford. or get creative and make your own mix. check the PH of your mix before you use it. These trees like to sit between 5.0 - 6.0 slightly acidic.

Pruning & Shaping

You may wish to shape your Christmas tree to hold its classic conical shape. Only do this during its active growing period of the plant, generally Spring/summer but be sure to check when this is for your tree species.

Be careful with the cuts you make, taking it slow and continually standing back to check your work. Making an incorrect cut to these species will not be reversible or fixable.

Pests & Diseases

Though there are a myriad of pests and diseases that could effect your tree through-out the year there are two that will be your worst enemy.

Spider mite - This infestation will devastate your foliage. keep an eye out for them through the year and treat as needed.

Phytophthora - As we have spoken about Phytophthora or root-rot will cause death. Over watering is to be avoided. another easy way to cause root-rot is to have your Christmas tree sitting in a decorative pot with no drainages. If you do have it in a pot like this, empty the pot after each watering.

Extra Tip

Something to be aware of is that these trees don’t like extreme changes in temperature around their root systems, if you live in a climate of extremes you may need to insulate your pot in winter. You can do this by placing them in a large stone or terracotta decorative pot or wrap a couple of layers of bubble wrap around the outside to keep their root ball nice and even.

Do you have any further advice or tips to include? Let us know in the comments below.