Xmas Tree

[em111111]

I bought a 4.5ft potted Fraser Fir for my Xmas Tree this year and would like some advice on planting it outside. Should it stay in a pot on the patio? should it be planted into the ground? if so should I wait till the spring? Any help and tips would be apprecitated.

[Robinia]

A lot depends on whether your tree was actually pot grown or just dug up & 'potted'. If it hasn't spent all its life in a pot, & at 4.5ft I would have thought it's unlikely, the roots may well have been too damaged for it to grow on.  However, think positive! It just might survive. Get it used to the outdoors again gradually, maybe a cool room, then a greenhouse for a while, keeping it watered, & as the days get warmer move it outside & plant in the spring. Dig a big hole & work in some good compost/ slow release plant food & keep it well watered.

Good luck!

[ursula62]

I bought a "potted" Christmas tree one year. It had been dug up and bunged in a pot. The nursery were completely honest about the source of the tree and said it had about a 10% chance of surviving after Christmas. We put it in my sister's garden and it lived for about 2 years and then died back.

 

I think a lot of the "potted" christmas trees are dug up with roots to prevent or lessen needle drop, rather than to be able to grow afterwards.

[ianess]

Literally `pot luck`.    At 4.5ft it`s quite a well-established tree so trying to keep it alive it may well kill it off. I wouldn`t think that it had been dug up with the intention of it being re-planted.

On the other hand....nothing ventured..nothing gained, so why not keep it well watered until Spring then stick it in the ground and see what happens?  Good luck.