Buttonwood and black olive grown Successfully indoors....so far

[MMJNICE]

I foolishly bought a rather expensive buttonwood on an online auction last spring without doing any research.. i mean i did looking at some for sale at a nursery in Florida that im sure everyone knows but that's about it. After being totally surprised I won the auction I started doing a little research and quickly became sick at the thought I would probably have to try to resale the tree or kill it this winter and lose a boat load of cash. I had 4 to 6 months to formulate a plan because I really don't like to give up and I only half believe what other people say because 70- 95% of the time people Spew out Regurgitated nonsense without first hand knowledge. I took the little bread Crumbs of information I found on bonsai nut and bought a heating pad for seedlings a decently strong grow light and a grow box for growing weed and got it ready for the coming winter. I also made sure to give the tree a two month break from growing from last Sept till late November because as the temperature dropped it basically stopped growing much. Around late November is when I put all my tropical trees including the black olive and buttonwood in the grow box. I set the seed warmer to low put a fan in and grow lights and misted the tree's once or twice a day. The black olive dropped all it's leaves but the buttonwood started growing like it was summer again. I've had to cut back the buttonwood twice now and it probably would have been three times if I hadn't not watered it 2 or 3 days in row. I got some major die back because I was depressed and didn't feel like doing anything. But it still managed to bounce back without losing but one branch. If there is a will there is a way.. the first set of pictures are before I cut back the tree.. the second set is after I thinned out the canopy to let light in so the bottom branches won't die off. The tree kinda looks like crap right now because of that three days I neglected it.. I won't do that again im back on my meds hehehehe. If anyone has questions or comments I'm more than willing to talk.. if I'm missing something to make this more Successful let me know.. but I've had petty good Success so far.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

A lot of people have the mistaken impression that tropical trees can't take any cold. They are usually fine until the temperature drops below 40F. So if you plan on overwintering tropicals in Ohio, you don't need to provide a tropical hot-house... just something that stays above freezing. You will also need to provide light - but it once again doesn't need to be super bright. Once tropicals experience cooler temps, their metabolic processes will slow down significantly. They will grow less, use less water, and require less light.

This assumes that you leave your tropicals outdoors in full sun 8+ months of the year. As long as they have a full season in full sunlight and summer warmth, they can usually be pretty forgiving with an overwintering set-up. Keeping a tropical indoors 12 months of the year is an entirely different undertaking.

Right now I have all my tropicals sitting on a long shelf in front of an east-facing window (mostly indirect lighting). I put them outside any day that night-time temps don't drop below 40. According to the forecast, they'll be going outside on Friday morning, and I'll be bringing them back inside on Tuesday evening