Hi, I am a newbie to firs, more of a JM keeper and I was hoping for some advice regarding a potted Normand Fir I have kept for 3 years. It’s about5.5ft now, was 3ft when I bought it, has grown strongly with good colour. Over the past 5months I have noticed some of the mid and lower branches have brown ends to some of the needles. On the truck, the needles look healthy at the top half but seem to have dropped off or gone brown on the lower half. I have been potting it on every year. I potted it on just before Christmas into a 90ltr pot with a good dose of ground soil which is clay based as I thought the extra nutrients would help as I had noticed the browning getting worse in the run up to winter. I have recently purchased a liquid seaweed tonic and given it one dose of that. Would more help monthly? Any ideas welcome..my assessment is that it needs to go in the ground and keeping firs in pots can only really be a short term arrangement. I’ve not really got a good spot to put it in the ground. Has anyone had any success. Keeping these in pots for more than 3years?
Maybe you should not repot it so often? Your fir has strong top growth, hence no deficiency of nutrients. But it obviously does not like frequent disturbing of roots.
Thanks Sulev, it could be that, but it seemed to be happy with repotting each year, and responded with additional growth and new petioles, the browning only started showing in the last 4months after it had been in its pot for probably a year.. I maintained a regular watering program over the summer, I just watered it when I do my maples..
Reading this information from Wikipedia, "Abies nordmanniana, the Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir, is a fir indigenous to the mountains south and east of the Black Sea, in Turkey, Georgia and the Russian Caucasus with precipitation of over 1,000 mm", I wonder if your tree needs more frequent, thorough, watering. As long as the pot has good drainage, it shouldn't do any harm. Also, I suggest holding off on the fertilizer, considering that Nordmann firs get little in their native habitat and still grow very tall with trunks up to 2 meters wide. You don't want yours to grow too fast! There will come a time when it is simply too large to grow successfully in a pot.
