To forestall your plant from rising crooked, give it 1 / 4 flip each week, in order that it receives solar from all angles.
For those who don’t have a variety of vivid mild coming into your house, you might want a develop mild.
Temperature and Humidity
When saved in common indoor circumstances, these vegetation will just do effective – they like a spread of 60 to 72°F through the day, and a barely cooler temperature at evening.
Humidity must be above 50 p.c, for finest outcomes.
Publicity to temperatures under 35°F can kill the plant.
Simply be sure to keep away from inserting your dwelling Christmas tree in a drafty location, corresponding to close to an exterior door or drafty window.
For those who give your Norfolk Island pine outside time in summer season, bear in mind to convey it again indoors when the mercury falls into the 50s.
Soil
Norfolk Island pine can develop in soil with a barely acidic, impartial, or barely alkaline pH.
It grows natively in a sandy, chalky loam, and is tolerant of salty soils.
Use a well-draining potting combine that has some sand in it – the sand will assist with drainage and supply stability, to forestall the trunk from leaning.
I like Tank’s Professional Coco-Soil Potting Combine for this objective. It comprises coconut coir for drainage and water retention, compost for vitamins, and it’s peat-free.
Tank’s Professional Coco-Soil Potting Combine
It’s obtainable for buy at Arbico Organics.
Water
Whereas dwelling Christmas bushes favor moist soil, they’re fairly drought tolerant, as my very own Norfolk pine can attest to.
After a disturbing transfer one yr, my plant was uncared for and it was not watered for (I’m ashamed to say) not less than two summer season months, if not longer.
Its needles began to show brown – together with these of its rising tip – and my husband and I each thought it was a goner.
However earlier than we relegated it to the compost pile, we determined to see if we may revive it. And amazingly, it rallied! It quickly started placing out new, vivid inexperienced foliage and looking out fairly completely satisfied and undaunted.
As a rule of thumb, water when the highest inch of soil feels dry. These vegetation favor moist however not soggy soil.
When it’s time to water, pour water evenly over the soil till it begins to expire of the underside of the pot.
Youthful vegetation will want extra frequent watering than extra mature bushes.
For those who’re unsure in the event you’re watering sufficient, look out for browning on the information of branches – this typically means the plant is being underwatered.
And as soon as the times begin to cool and winter arrives, your Norfolk pine ought to require water much less continuously.
Discover extra watering suggestions right here.
Fertilizer
Fertilizing twice a yr is a lot to offer your plant with the vitamins it wants.
You should use a general-purpose houseplant fertilizer and apply through the rising season.
Or you possibly can take a extra pure, natural method, like I do, through the use of worm compost tea to fertilize your plant. You may make your personal worm compost tea out of your worm castings.
TeaDrops are tea packets containing dry worm compost which can be prepared to make use of.
TeaDrops Natural Houseplant Fertilizer
You’ll discover a pack of 16 worm compost tea packets from the Earthworm Applied sciences Retailer obtainable through Amazon.
The place to Purchase
These vegetation can be found to buy in a spread of sizes, from table-top to ground sized.
When buying certainly one of these festive conifers, understand that the extra outside time and fertilizer you give them, and the extra typically you repot them, the sooner they’ll develop – and select your measurement accordingly.
Norfolk Island Pine
You’ll find two- to three-foot tall vegetation obtainable at Quick Rising Bushes.
Upkeep
Norfolk Island pines are actually low upkeep.
The branches of those bushes aren’t as sturdy as these of a Fraser fir, and received’t arise nicely to a heavy load of decorations.
So if you’re hanging ornaments, restrict them to people who are light-weight. Bows, ribbons, and light-weight glass ornaments make good selections.
The decrease branches will flip brown and die as these vegetation develop. It is a regular course of – you possibly can take away them with a pair of backyard snips or pruners.
Nonetheless, it’s finest to keep away from pruning inexperienced progress since this may as it could possibly have an effect on the general form of the tree.
