Potted conifer turning brown

aleister.willis

Hello,

I was hoping for a bit of advice on a conifer I bought, its in a container next to the side of our house - really purchased to screen my neighbours en-suite window.

Its a new build so impossible to plant next to the wall as there is only 30cm of soil, then sub base.

I kept it in the container, but the leaves are browning - I water regularly, but am concerned I could be over watering. 

Its in full sunlight unitl 3.30pm - if any one has any clues as to how I should care for it I would appreciate it.

I've included a few images.

Thanks

Clarington

I think it needs to be in a bigger pot; for something that tall it will have a large root which means there will be very little soil and nutrients in the pot.

hogweed

You are probably not getting enough water into the pot to support that amount of greenery. As it has been said, I think you will need to put it into a very much larger pot. If/when you do that, make sure you tease the roots out so that they are no longer 'pot' shaped. Use John Innes no 3 for the soil. It looks as though it could be about 8 ft tall? 

hogweed

If it is about 8 ft tall, I would reckon it needed at least a 130litre or upwards size of pot.............which is a minimum of 2 ft across! I would be tempted to go upto a 150 or 170 litre pot. Huge I know but you do have a huge tree in what looks like a thimble!

And always plant it at the same depth as it was leaving a good 4 inches between the top of the soil and the top of the pot so that you can get loads of water in. As it is in full sun it is going to lose a lot of water in the summer. One of the reasons why it is very difficult to have big trees in pots - they can be taxing!

aleister.willis

Wow - the tree is 15ft high..... sounds like I need a new pot; will buy one today and post a pic.

Thanks for helping with that!.

Dovefromabove

Get some John Innes No 3 loam based compost while you're at it