California Juniper Yamadori Help

[bonsaianak]

Hello. I recently acquired a collected california for free. The catch: its on its last breaths. I had no part in the collection or aftercare so I dont know how long its been out the ground. It was in a 15 gallon nursery container filled with gardening soil and wobbled tremendously, which suggested to me there was probably no roots. I was right. I took it out and put it in a grow box with pumice hoping for a miracle. Its got almost no foliage but some of the branches still have live tissue. From what I see, the chances of it surviving is slim to none which is incredibly sad and disappointing because it is a beautiful tree and i wish whoever had collected it would’ve taken the proper aftercare to keep it alive. Anyone have any miracle experiences of there "so far gone yamadoris" coming back to life, or do i have a nice piece of deadwood for a tanuki?

 

[Ruddigger]

Shame. Beautiful deadwood though.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Dang. I have no experience with junipers being so far gone, but I've had a few on the verge of death.
I brought them back by supplying auxins (IBA-K as a water soluble salt at 0,5mg/L, every sixth watering, so once a week) and leaving them in the shade and out of the wind and heat. Junipers need their foliage to produce new roots and you basically have a cutting with a huge piece of wood attached to it. I recommend pushing some sphagnum moss against the live vein(s) and keeping that moss damp (and free of critters). It might produce new roots and send them out through the bark, as long as the foliage lives. So misting that remaining tuft of foliage might be wise too. Not sure if the right course of action would be to clean the live vein at the base so that it can do its magic easier, but water-transportation wise I think that could be a good move.
Chances are super slim, but some moss and some IBA-K salts (NAA might work too) shouldn't cost you more than 15-50 bucks.. Which to me seems worth a shot!

Super experimental and not sure if this would work: if the live vein is fat enough, you could try a scion cutting of roots and insert it like the schematic below. This could potentially keep it alive. But again, I have no experience with this and I'm not sure if this would even work. But since we're in the growing season, the roots might just be able to push water up hard enough to make a connection and push some life into the remains before both collapse. Maybe wedge grafting seedlings/cuttings would be the better option, I'm not sure.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Make sure you watch this video of Tom Vuong's garden - particularly about 11:30 when he starts talking about California and Utah collection aftercare and shade as well as misting timing.

Also, I remember an article long ago about how Mr. Kimura took a collected shimpaku that was nearly dead and had no roots, treated it like a giant cutting, scraped the bark near the last live vein, inverted the tree so that the vein faced downwards, and with the help of regular misting was able to get the tree to grow new roots. In this unusual case the top of the tree ultimately became the bottom of the design.

I wish you luck!

 

[Paradox]

That's a shame. The dead wood on the trunk is really nice

 

[Adair M]

Misting! It’s your only hope!

And make sure there is ABSOLUTELY NO WOBBLE of the tree in the pot.

 

[ponderingsage]

Once the foliage drys out and gets crispy...there is no coming back, right? Despite misting?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Right. But some maybe unseen may still be there. Do not give up please.