AusBonsai

Hello there,

Thank you in advance for any guidance you can provide. We bought a 10 year old Juniper mid-August of this year. As the first photo shows, it was a dark green and healthy. In the subsequent photos you can see the green colour has gone dull and there is now brown needles in patches, particularly closer to the trunk. The tips are the healthiest and small growth is occurring.

My boyfriend has had a lot of exposure to bonsai care and maintenance (his father grew hundreds of them) but we have been unable to really figure out what the problem is.

The details of the environment are:

Climate: Humid Sub Tropical
Light: In-direct light but gets around an hour of direct afternoon sunshine (that will increase as summer sets in). Also, when we are in our garage or outside we bring it out to get some direct sunlight (approx. 2 hours a week)
Location: Outside, on our balcony (we dont have a backyard)
Watering: The tree is set with a pebble bed and so we have struggled when determining the needs for watering. We spray the moss several times a day and we lightly water the pot and spray the foliage when a finger pressed into the rocks and down to the soil doesn't feel wet. Because its been quite dry here this year we mostly water daily.

We have been weary or fertilizing or pruning when the tree seems to be in a fragile state, so we haven't done this. Can anyone give any insight or advice? There is a peice of driftwood in the pot and when we bought the plant the driftwood was visibly soaked at the bottom. We thought that perhaps the grower has given the plant an extra water as it was at a market well outside the city (so it would survive the change). Any thoughts? I thought maybe we should be aiming to see the same wetness to ensure it is watered properly, but as you can imagine i have read so much about over watering that im afraid to go down this path!

Look forward to your advice!

hey angie, first off, scratch the bark and see if there is green there, this will be the cambium layer, it will tell you whether it has some life left in it. if no green, sorry. as far as i can tell you are not looking to good there on all signs.

from what you are saying i take it you keep this tree indoors? this is no good for a juniper. it is an outdoor tree. i think that is a major problem there aswell if thats the case. any air conditioning or heating will dry it right out quick smart, it needs more light than a couple of hours a day. and if it is inside like i am thinking near a window the glass will magnify the light and cause it to burn. take it outside and keep it in the shade for a bit. give it some good feeding and see how you go, i dont think its gonna make it though. junipers can be dead for up to 6 months before showing any signs of problems sorry mate.

regards jamie

edit. ok i didnt read it all properly. i see it is on your balcony.
the tree definately needs way more direct light then 2 hours a week. my junipers get up to 8 hours of direct sunlight a day, as you can see from my avatar. very green

i just notcied your in brisbane. i take it you got the bonsai from eumundi markets???? i have heard of the fella that sells them there. i would have hoped he would tell you the requirements of the tree. i live in hervey bay and have similar conditions to you. your conditions shouldnt be a problem, i have junipers that i have had since i started bonsai 4 years ago and even with out to much knowledge havent had to much trouble. i am not trying to put you off my all means so please dont take me wrong. this is something we all learn. i have had deaths too dont worry, as all of us have.


if you have some green shoots growing then you just might be in luck but this will take a long time to get back if you can. is the drift wood attached to the tree via screws or similar? or is it actual deadwood from a trunk that was chopped??

G,day I hate to be the bringer of bad tidings, but by the look of the wood on the branch you are showing. It is like me wrinkled.

For me that is age for your tree unfortunately it is terminal. When Juniper display brown foliage and shrunken wood it usualy means that it is dead.
It has been slowly dieing for at least 6 weeks.
As I said sorry.
Anybody selling Bonsai should provide the person with instuctions as to it's proper care. Where to keep it, how and when to water.

Please do not give up on Bonsai ask BF to consider another, only this time from a reputable Bonsai Nursery. I know there are some in the Brisbane area.

Pup

exactly right pup, sad story for this one but at least it is a learning experience. and on another note if i may reccommend bonsai northside nursery. tess and selby are great people and only to willing to give advice on proper care and maitenance. they have great stock and very reasonable prices. they also have ready made bonsai especially juniper. they have some excellent ready made juni that work very well. and are particularly priced very well too. hope this helps angie

regards jamie

my first guess here is that it was chopped and potted just b4 you purchased it. days b4 in fact. looks like a fairly thick trunk you got there, in which case was much taller and full of foliage. freak out for this litte fella to be reduced drastically in one hit. especially if the roots were too savaged as well. 2nd guess balcony can get smacked around with strong drying winds. 3rd have you used chemical ferts and poured them over the foliage? any one of these or 2 or 3 compounding together and the tree is a gonner. im not confident with the look of it. hope this helps good luck.

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I dont think that is the trunk ant. i think it is a bit of driftwood made to look like the trunk

bodhidharma wrote:

I dont think that is the trunk ant. i think it is a bit of driftwood made to look like the trunk

It is a piece of drift wood it was explained in the first text by vancouverangie. Pup

Thank you everyone for your feedback.


Jamie: We have tested two of the thicker branches with a scratch test, both are green! At least this means there is life left and we can salvage it with love and good keeping. The problem with our place is that we do not get direct sunlight and do not have our own yard. We have discussed this and think we may leave the bonsai downstairs on the unit property in a spot that's not used by anyone. The only obvious worry is someone will nick it, or worse, hurt the poor thing. And, yes we bought the tree from the Eumundi markets from a wonderful and very professional man named Michael. I will admit (with my boyfriend not looking ) that we were confident his skills and knowledge would be enough and so Michael didn't go into details with maintenance. I'm not sure about the driftwood, its on there solid so its definitely attached to something. I've attached a pic of where the trunk and driftwood meet for your review.

We will sort out the low light issues. How about watering? and, should we be holding off fertilizer until its more stable or start now to give it a good nudge back to health?

Thanks everyone for the quick reply, very much appreciated.

bodhidharma wrote:

I dont think that is the trunk ant. i think it is a bit of driftwood made to look like the trunk

my wrong reading too fast. 1 is still a chance considering we dont know exctly whats behind there and 2 and 3 still stand.

angie,

i think i may have given you false hope. can you show us of these new shoots? you said there was still some there? i have seen junipers still green under the bark and die off later. like i said it could be weeks to months before you know there is a problem with them. one good thing is the trunk isnt looking shrivelled, but as pup said the branches do, this is generally a sign that they have died.
if you have new shoots you might be very lucky, but i cant be confident sorry.
if you have gone all the way to eumundi markets i suggest dropping in to see tess at morayfield. easy to find, the adress is 15 devine court. she is wonderfull and will help you with everything. one suggestion is if you are in a flat there are ways around getting your trees sun. some more difficult then others but still work none the less. you can make a board that hooks onto your balcony over the edge that will receive light, be very carefull making something like this, makesure it is strong and has high sides as to make sure the tree/s dont blow off. or you could buy a tree that can be an "indoor" bonsai. if you have a window that has some good sun etc. this can work. something like a chinese elm. ficus etc. these will do alright indoors in a sunny window, but like i said earlier you have to be careful they dont get burnt either.
i will be amazed if this juniper comes back. but you might get very lucky who knows. as for water. only when needed. feeding. i would give it half strength for now as per directions to the fert. and i would say lots more sunlight next time
i hope that you keep the hobby as it is really rewarding if you do lose this one. it is a learning curve. i am going through a problem with an experiment with one of my junipers that i am trying to fuse at the moment.

maybe one of the more experienced can help here aswell.

regards jamie

Hi again,

Photos attached, new shoot circled in red... new within the last few weeks. also attached close ups of bark and trunk.

angie, as pup and myself feared. this one will RIP. as you can see from your close ups the branches are wrinkled, this is dehydrated and watering isnt going to help, the root system will be dead. sorry mate. the new buds you see would be from trunk energy only, as you can tell they are yellow as well. no nutrients are being taken up through the roots. if you bend the wrinkled branches more likely than not it will snap clean and be like dry wood. so where do we go from here ?
just to be on the safe side do the reccommended things as above. you never know, it might resurrect itself, second, i would head down to see tess and selby at bonsai northside ( i know i have said this, its nearly like i am advertising for them , im mearly passing on my great experiences with them)

here is there website http://www.bonsainorthsidenursery.com.au/

tess or the people that work there will be able to help you a great deal in choosing something that will be suited to you. i hope that you keep trying

regards jamie

If a juniper shows this kind of foliage colour, I think it is very dead. Sorry mate. I have dead ones before. But not to worry. If you live in Brisbane, the Templex nursery in Algester (Beaudesert Road) sells this size junipers for $10 each in plastic pots. Just keep the pot and the drifted wood and replace the tree. This time keep it in the shade to a couple weeks after repoting in this exsisting pot then keep it outside like others have suggested here. Make sure you replace the soil as well and sterile the pot just in case of fungus and other nasty stuff that may have killed this tree. Also I have heard that over feeding and over watering junipers can kill them as well.

On those close up pictures showing the yellow shoots, it also show where the branch has been broken away from the trunk.
The shots show really dried wood any thing you try now is a waist of time and effort.

This particular species need a minimum of 5 hours sun per day they also need to cool down at night. There original habitat is in the mountains.
A ficus for a flat unless you can give it these minimum requirements. Sorry again Pup