Please help me not kill another Xmas tree

[PiningForTheMoon]

Every year I buy a potted Xmas tree and end up killing the poor thing.

I don’t bring it inside for long (or at all) so I don’t think it’s related to heat/being indoors.

I feel terrible for not looking after them well enough. I’d like this year to be the last time I buy one and to be able to keep it for future years.

Please tell me how to treat it well and keep it alive.

christmas trees really don't like growing in little pots. If you must, put it in the biggest pot possible and wheel the pot inside for christmas and then wheel it back out afterwards. But in 2-3 years time it will have got too big for the pot and will have to be planted or will die.

Buy a plastic one. Plenty of really good fake trees about that even with a decent up-front outlay will actually save you £100s over say 10 or 20 years.

Zero dropped needles either. Game changer.

This isn't true at all. You can keep a tree in a container. At some point it may grow too large for you to handle depending on the species but otherwise as long as you care for it well you'll be able to keep it for years to come.

You can totally do this! Make sure the pot isn't too large. The root system is directly proportional to its trunk and branches so get a pot that fits its current size. Water generously once a week, and don't overwater. I would place gravel at the bottom and make sure the pot can drain. Keep it cool outdoors as they should remain dormant until Spring. You can ask your local plant center or just google about the specific species according to your climate as well.

I bought a £10 real Christmas Tree from Sainsbury's 2 years ago & its still going strong.
I repotted it into a slightly larger pot, keep it in a shading cool part of the garden during the year; only water it in the summer when it's hot. In December I put it out the front of our house & after move it back. It's definitely possible.
Maybe see if you can find a Christmas Tree farm where they've grown them in the pot rather than dug them out the ground?

Thanks all for your advice.

I’ve bought my previous trees from garden centres but I’ve never repotted them.

I’m going to try one last year before I admit defeat and buy a fake tree in the January sales.

I’ll put in in a slightly bigger pot that I but it in, add gravel and only water weekly and only have it inside for a couple of weeks.

I bought a £15 blue spruce from B&M three years ago. Slightly smaller than I wanted but the price was good that if I lost it in the first year or so not the end of the world.

Its doing well, repotted it into a bigger pot after the first year and its done even better since.

Like others, I pull it round to the front door area around mid November, it gets a set of baubles and lights for December, then its pulled back to its usual spot which east facing. Water it in the hot months.

I don't bring mine indoors at all.

I bought one from a supermarket on Christmas Eve about 8 years ago - it's still going strong!
I feed it in the spring, water it in the summer (frequency depends on weather), it's in semi shady spot in the garden. Have repotted it once, last year, into a wider pot, well twice I suppose as also put it in a nice big pot when i bought it. Comes in for a couple of weeks in December.

No tricks, just treat it like the rest of the pot plants except it stays out for most of the winter.

It might well be you've previously bought trees that weren't really container-grown (and weren't suitably for it). Lots of the potted Christmas trees you can buy at this time of year have had most of their roots cut off so they can be squeezed into a pot, and sold.

A decent nursery should also be able to sell you a container-grown tree that hasn't been treated like this. It ought to be the sort of tree they could rely on someone buying to plant directly into the garden, so it may not be marketed as a 'Christmas tree in a pot,' but Abies nordmanniana or whatever. It might well have a larger pot proportional to its size than you're used to.

Thanks to subsequent posters.

I think transferring it to a slightly bigger pot shortly after I buy it should help 🤞

We have a fake tree that sheds as many needles as a real one, for added authenticity (or maybe just because it's a 30-year-old Woolworths one).

Re: gravel. Don't put it in a layer at the bottom of the pot - that makes waterlogging worse, not better. Mix it through the compost when you repot.

Plastic ones don't have that pine smell which real ones do. Also, real trees that still have their roots, don't tend to shed needles. Plus plastic ones end up in landfill at the end of their lives and are bad for the environment. Real one every time for me. I always get a rooted one. The first one lasted five years until we had hot weather and I forgot to water it. Another one lasted only one year, because I forgot to water it. But my latest one is going strong and when it gets too big for me to handle, I'll plant it in the garden.

Go for a Nordman fir if you can, they are least likely to drop needles. Agree with a pp saying a lot of the potted ones haven't been grown in pots long-term before purchase, they have just been hauled out of the ground and shoved into a pot a few weeks ago.

The main thing is to keep it well watered and away from a radiator or open fire.