Embarrassed by black thumb

[brentwood]

So in three weeks of having my new juniper,I feel like it's on life support... I moved to a new pot and bonsai soil, repotted you might say, and I put on a bench in my front room.
About a week ago I notice it drops needles when I touch it, would even call it brittle. Put it on water emergency rations, start misting it, and finally moved it out to garage where humidity is over 50% and temp below..
Seems to be responding, feel like next move is outside? Am I right? We just got hammered with snow, wish it was buried in it....
Brent

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Don’t be too surprised if it’s dead. The only positive response you would really see is maybe a slow-down of needles dropping, since junipers in OH should be dormant and not showing any signs of new growth. Junipers don’t last long inside, nor through winter repotting when they’re already weak. The garage is probably the best place for it. Find another one and have enough trees you’re not loving any single one to death. If this is the Itoigawa from Brent, that is unfortunate, as it would have done fine had it just been set in the garage without any trimming of any kind.

 

[brentwood]

Don’t be too surprised if it’s dead. The only positive response you would really see is maybe a slow-down of needles dropping, since junipers in OH should be dormant and not showing any signs of new growth. Junipers don’t last long inside, nor through winter repotting when they’re already weak. The garage is probably the best place for it. Find another one and have enough trees you’re not loving any single one to death. If this is the Itoigawa from Brent, that is unfortunate, as it would have done fine had it just been set in the garage without any trimming of any kind.

The Junis from Brent are out in the garden, this was an impulse buy procum.
I'm hoping maybe some surgery in the spring as opposed to burial. Just putting this out there to reinforce junipers being outside message, maybe save someone else's tree.
B

 

[Bonsai Nut]

So in three weeks of having my new juniper,I feel like it's on life support... I moved to a new pot and bonsai soil, repotted you might say, and I put on a bench in my front room.
About a week ago I notice it drops needles when I touch it, would even call it brittle. Put it on water emergency rations, start misting it, and finally moved it out to garage where humidity is over 50% and temp below..
Seems to be responding, feel like next move is outside? Am I right? We just got hammered with snow, wish it was buried in it....
Brent

A picture is worth a thousand words...

But if you aren't killing trees when you start out, you aren't normal. I always tell people: the challenge is to not kill trees the same way twice. That means you are learning!

 

[Joe Dupre']

Keeping junipers outside should have been on page 1 of any bonsai information you might have researched. That's a pretty big bit of information to pass over. Anyway, I do hope your tree makes it. You'll kill trees in this hobby sooner or later. Just figure out "why" and you'll do fine.

 

[brentwood]

My only excuse for this guy was that I picked it up in December, and it was living in a greenhouse... I wanted to get it out of its pot, into a bigger pot - put it into a gifted pot that I couldn't bring myself to bury. My takeaway is to buy juniper that are sitting outside, and then to move them to an outside place in my yard. I may have to get that tattooed where I'll see it a lot : )

 

[Joe Dupre']

One hint is to figure what kind of environment the tree is native to. If it's not a tropical tree, chances are it can stay out in it's native type of weather all year long. I'm sure the guys from colder climates can tell you of leaving their trees out with a foot of snow on them in sub freezing temps for months at a time.

 

[brentwood]

Just wanted to post a follow up... After a month in garage and now some time outside, I'm maybe more optimistic about this guy. After our negative temps passed,I started leaving it on a bench outside the garage, putting snow on it like water, letting it enjoy the cold. The needles seem to be softening up, no longer fall out like dead seeds. Just had to share...
Thanks all,
B

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

Glad to hear your trees are doing better. Here are a couple of young junipers like one would buy at a box store or side of the road bonsai van. One was kept for a year per the beginner Wiki on Reddit, other one was kept in an office window for the same amount of time. I'll let you guess which is which

 

[brentwood]

Glad to hear your trees are doing better. Here are a couple of young junipers like one would buy at a box store or side of the road bonsai van. One was kept for a year per the beginner Wiki on Reddit, other one was kept in an office window for the same amount of time. I'll let you guess which is which
View attachment 226001

Ok, point made ?.. that's pretty amazing. I always forget about Reddit for non technical stuff, good resource. Need to spend more time reading, less time killing trees.

Thanks,
Brent

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I understand the keeping junipers outside rule, yet I wonder why this is. Does the tree need to remain cold for a period of time? Would it be ok in a cold-storage environment? Does it need unceasing sunlight and cold? Just trying to wrap my fingers around the basic care here.

 

[Frojo]

I think most of all they need lots of light, direct sunlight, at least 4h a day.
To a juniper indoors looks practically pitch dark, it starves.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I understand the keeping junipers outside rule, yet I wonder why this is. Does the tree need to remain cold for a period of time? Would it be ok in a cold-storage environment? Does it need unceasing sunlight and cold? Just trying to wrap my fingers around the basic care here.

It is because of light requirements. Indoor environments don't, as a rule, provide enough light. Some trees, if they don't get enough light, will simply grow thin and leggy. Junipers will often just die.

If you are growing cannabis indoors, and want to slide a juniper in among your plants, I am certain it would do fine. Any light bright enough to grow cannabis would grow a juniper. But most people don't do this. Instead they try to grow a juniper under an office desk lamp, or in a window with indirect lighting. That isn't going to work.