I did some experiments with the batch of plants I got from Houston that I think will be informative-
Plants still looked really good by the time they got here with green on most of the tips of the branches, even an odd leaf or two, I soaked just the roots in seaweed extract diluted in rainwater for 30 minutes and then potted them up and lightly watered them in with the seaweed extract water
Since I was receiving plants for multiple people I put mine into a mix of roughly 1:1 sphagnum moss and cedar bark with a few scoops of vermiculite and gravel in fabric pots and put the rest in pure sphagnum moss in plastic pots-
The ones in pure sphagnum moss seem to have done better than the ones I gave extra care to- I cant be certain but it does look like my soil mixture is holding more water that the sphagnum (at least in the short term) which would be in line with peoples observations to keep them pretty dry for the first few weeks-
We were not blessed with the warm weather you Californians have had since the trees arrived which has led to me doing a lot of shuffling between the house and outside but I have kept them watered with rainwater roughly twice a week and checking to make sure the soil is drying out-
When one of the forum members came to pick up there trees this past weekend they still had green tips. Although the ones on mine have browned when I scratch the trees there is green under the bark-
Now that things are warming up I have them in their semi-permanent spot, no buds yet but keeping a close eye on them
