Ebay, for a flower pot????? That's like picking out a head of lettuce via
the internet. :-)

"Diane" wrote in message
m...
A definite 'yes' to your third point, when I water it, it seems to go
right thru and leak out the bottom. Its in a green plastic pot, the
biggest I could find, hope I can find a bigger one. (ebay of course!)
I'm wondering now, even with all that rain we had, maybe it still
wasn't getting enough water. Looks like I got some work to do, I just
hope its not too late to save it! Thanks for all this info.
di


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
net.net...
In order of likelihood:

1) Totally out of whack soil acidity: It's a plant that wants acid soil.
I
can't tell you the precise pH range, but when you go to a real garden
center
to buy more potting soil, a soil test kit, a bigger pot, and the right
acid
plant food, they'll be able to guide you. The test kit will have a chart
inside. As for advice while you're there. There are little bags of
chemicals
you can also use to adjust pH, but I've never had to use them so I don't
remember their names. Potassium kaflerpinide or something.... :-)
They're
basic chemicals, not like pesticides or anything.

2) Wildly varying soil moistu Because of wind & sun, potted plants
outdoors can go from being properly moist to dangerously dry in a matter
of
hours (for small pots), or a day or two for bigger pots, especially clay
pots. They're the prettiest pots, but they wick moisture away from the
soil.
When you repot, get a pot that's quite a bit larger than you think you
need.
Three times the size of the rootball would be right for that tree. When
you
water, take a moment to thoroughly wet down the outsides of clay pots.

3) Hot pot: To varying degrees, all plants want *some* sort of specific
conditions, in terms of root temperature. If the tree is in the sun and
nothing's shading the pot, then the roots are hotter than the top of the
tree. That's unnatural for the tree you're talking about. If you repot,
buy
a light-colored pot - at least as light as the normal reddish clay pots.
And, try and find a way to shade the pot from all-day sun. Maybe you
could
build a simple little moveable wooden wall, like a room partition, just
high
enough to shade the pot. Use wood that's similar to what your deck's
made
of, and it won't look weird.

4) Rootbound - outgrowing the pot. When you water the tree, does water
pour
out the bottom very quickly?

Good luck!
-Doug




"Diane" wrote in message
om...
Last Xmas I bought a live tree with the roots still attached, I potted
it, enjoyed it for the holidays, then moved it out to my deck,
thinking I would either replant it in the spring, or maybe even reuse
it next Xmas. Well it was doing great until about a month ago, just
before we here in New England got all that rain (one month straight!).
It began to turn an ugly yellow-brown. The needles aren't dry or
falling off the way a dead tree would. Any ideas on what's wrong with
it and what I can do to save it? or is it dead already? and to think
I did this specifically to avoid having to throw out a perfectly good
tree after xmas!!!

di