Hello there,
I'm brand new to this forum and I figured I'd dive right in with my most pressing holiday season gardening question. Recently my sweetheart and I picked up a potted dwarf oriental spruce (about four feet high and in a 10x11 pot) at our local nursery. Our hope is that we can use it every year for yule, migrating it indoors for a few weeks using a gradual temperature increase and then rotate it back outside. My mother has a little tree that she does this with that has done very well.
I've done my best to scour the internet about potted trees but I'm finding relatively little about this particular evergreen raised in a container. Most guides mention eventually planting the tree, but I'm hoping to achieve something of a large bonsai in continuously pruning.
My first concern is that I may have given it a bit of temperature shock when I first brought it home. I don't see any yellowing/browning happening and I've moved it into a room that basically mimics outdoor temperatures after the first six hours or so.
My second concern is that while the room may help it more gradually acclimate, I'm also afraid of daily fluctuations in temperature. I get relatively low light (ah, apartment living) and there is no insulation to speak of, so I worry about the tree suffering from rapid changes in temperature. I know for certain that it cannot survive away from the window, however, due to the light conditions.
Any suggestions you might have about how to best go about the re-potting (I got it a larger pot that's a bit aesthetically nicer than the green plastic one that came from the nursery and drilled some drainage into the bottom) would be welcome. There seems to be varied opinions about substrate and when to attempt the transfer floating about online. I'd also love to hear anything you have to say about watering, as I'm sure its needs must differ in a container and I'm simultaneously afraid of over and under watering. Help!
Please advise me and help me keep this little yule tree living happily and healthy. Any resources you'd care to link would also be much appreciated.