Large Trees Brought Indoors All Dying! Please Help Me Save Them!

Hello,


We've just finished a new build house. It has high ceilings and (despite being in Ireland which tends to be dull for a lot of the year) should be reasonably bright as it's got windows all along the side facing south (and some north facing ones also. I really like trees and so was keen on the idea of growing some trees indoors in large pots as the rooms were big enough to take them. The problem is all of the trees (to varying degrees) are shedding their leaves and look to be dying!


The trees:


(1) Citrus Kumquat Nagami:


How it looked when it arrived 2 weeks ago:





How it looks now:





Just to say this does not do it justice to how much worse it looks, it looks much worse in real life than in the picture.


(2) Scots Pine:





Holding up best of the 3 trees but the needles are turning brown quite rapidly.



(3) Olive Tree:





Again does not look that bad in pic and leaves mostly still green but has lost a lot of them and is losing more rapidly.


Just to say we brought some smaller ones in also and the same thing happened:


Here's one that was in the house for a few weeks:





And here's one that has stayed outside all of the time for comparison:

:


So as you can see none of them are doing well indoors:


I've got multiple probes to check the soil moisture levels, annoyingly the symptoms of over/underwatering them seems similar but as per probes they are ok for moisture.


I tried giving them all specific plant feeds (citrus/pine/olive) but that did nothing. As the Citrus was fading fast I tried lightly spraying leaves with Epsom Salts + water.


I've also brought a grow light for the Citrus as I thought it needed more light. Nothing is working and I may well be making things worse.


The indoor temperature is about a stable 20 degrees, it's a passive house so should stay pretty stable all year around. They are close to the windows but not getting direct sun on them when it's sunny there's an overhang all along the south facing roof. You can see what the room looks like here, it's a very dull day here today:








My concern is that they will all slowly die. There's lots of stuff online saying you can grow olive trees etc indoors but I wonder are those US/Australia based where they get a lot more sunlight than here. Do people successfully grow trees indoors in the UK/Ireland?


My options seem to be:


(1) Get the trees outside and plant them in the garden now before it's too late and they die. The olive and pine I'd imagine will be fine. The citrus says on the label it's hardy down to -5 degrees which should be fine for Ireland (we're close to coast so it tends to rarely be frosty or that cold). I also worry the longer I leave it the more of a shock it would be to go from warm house to cold garden.


The plan would then be to maybe try and grow some big green plants (areca palm, Monstera or similar) which I think are likely to do better indoors. I'd like some really big greenery indoors but ideally somthing that does not require constant care like the trees seem to. Any suggestions on what would work well would be great.


(2) Try and save the trees and keep them indoors. I'm not sure how feasible this is. I'm spending huge amounts of time/effort on them, my wife says I'm nuts and should worry about the 100 other things that need fixing in the house so this is perhaps not the best plan.



Anyway, sorry for the very long post and any advice would be much appreciated. I don't have a good gardener to advise me here so thought I'd turn to some online expertise for help!


Thanks in advance!

 

I think you have made the wrong choice of trees.
I'd go more for house plant type trees.
Look for large specimens of what we would normally grow in a house, mostly tropical plants, the kind of plants you see in large offices.

The ones you have will prefer being outside all year, although the citrus might need some winter protection if it gets frosty.

 

Agree with @pete. The problem in a house is usually lack of humidity in the air, coupled with lack of natural light. IME, citrus hate being indoors.
I'm also intrigued by those pots...do they have an internal 'saucer' or reservoir? If so, that would explain the kumquat's sickness. They must have good, free drainage and never stand in water.
Too big to re-pot, I imagine, so drill or knock plenty of holes around the base, sit it on bricks in a sheltered spot outdoors and it should recover.

 

Its a pity because they look like good specimen plants and would have cost a mint I would think.
On the subject of humidity, might be worth thinking about things like Yucca elephantipies or Ficus robusta, Monstera as you mention is an easy grower, along with Philodendron I find some palms like a bit more humidity but I'm sure there are some suitable.

 

What a pity- the trees look(ed) awesome! I hope they will recover outdoors.

For large indoors plants, perhaps you could visit some public buildings (libraries, hotel lobbies etc) to get inspiration on their plants?

Ficus Benjamina is probably the most common "big indoors tree", and is widely available. Big plants cost a fortune but in right conditions it is a fast grower so you could start with something smaller.

For a tad longer term project, why not grow Avocado from seed? Mine reached the ceiling in about 5-6 years.

Monstera is spectacular but will need a sturdy support, a stick will not do so either a permanent obelisk type of support or "hanging" it from the ceiling are options to consider.

One thing to note, we are now firmly in autumn so any new houseplants will probably only look worse for a couple of months, nothing to worry about that. They'll should perk up in spring. It's just best to be mindful not to water too much and not to give fertiliser until new growth starts.

Good luck, please share photos of your journey!

 

BTW, did you spray all of them, insect repel. if not might have some hatching /or flying about in your house.

 

Option 1 is the only way @Blobert .IMHO they're not indoor trees and need to be outside.Fab trees though.