Gall Growth on Juniper

[tsurihaga]

Hi all,
I’m a bit new to growing bonsai, started a couple years back. A few weeks ago I noticed a growth on one of my juniper? Should I be alarmed? Not sure whether to cut it or just leave it. Appreciate any help or tips on this. Thank you.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

What you're seeing is callus. Scar growth.
Your plant is trying to heal itself by creating lumps of cells that later become functional structures eventually but for now they're undifferentiated.

You can scratch it with a super sharp blade and try to keep it from protruding further but the cells below might not survive the exposure to the elements. It's better to wait for a bunch of months, or to just leave it as is.

It just happens sometimes when stuff gets damaged. If you check out air layering techniques, you'll see that a lot of people get that callus growth with the goal of it producing roots as functional structures, this is the intermediate phase.

The title had me worried about apple cedar rust, but that would be orange and spongy.

 

[leatherback]

As @Wires_Guy_wires sais, plant repairing. It woudl be good for you to understand how the bark got damaged there. You can see a large segment of bark missing. Did you recently unwire?

 

[tsurihaga]

What you're seeing is callus. Scar growth.
Your plant is trying to heal itself by creating lumps of cells that later become functional structures eventually but for now they're undifferentiated.

You can scratch it with a super sharp blade and try to keep it from protruding further but the cells below might not survive the exposure to the elements. It's better to wait for a bunch of months, or to just leave it as is.

It just happens sometimes when stuff gets damaged. If you check out air layering techniques, you'll see that a lot of people get that callus growth with the goal of it producing roots as functional structures, this is the intermediate phase.

The title had me worried about apple cedar rust, but that would be orange and spongy.

What you're seeing is callus. Scar growth.
Your plant is trying to heal itself by creating lumps of cells that later become functional structures eventually but for now they're undifferentiated.

You can scratch it with a super sharp blade and try to keep it from protruding further but the cells below might not survive the exposure to the elements. It's better to wait for a bunch of months, or to just leave it as is.

It just happens sometimes when stuff gets damaged. If you check out air layering techniques, you'll see that a lot of people get that callus growth with the goal of it producing roots as functional structures, this is the intermediate phase.

The title had me worried about apple cedar rust, but that would be orange and spongy.

Thank you Wires_Guy_wires. So that's what it is. I was also so worried that the juniper might have gotten some fungus (my research wasn’t that accurate) and I was so close to scrapping it. Thanks again for your advice, will just leave it for now. Regards.

 

[tsurihaga]

As @Wires_Guy_wires sais, plant repairing. It woudl be good for you to understand how the bark got damaged there. You can see a large segment of bark missing. Did you recently unwire?

Hi, I noticed that too, that bark is being pushed back by the callous growth. I did wire a few months ago but never unwired. I’m assuming I might have scraped it during the wiring. Last time I checked there was no significant damage to the tree.

 

[SeanS]

Hi, I noticed that too, that bark is being pushed back by the callous growth. I did wire a few months ago but never unwired. I’m assuming I might have scraped it during the wiring. Last time I checked there was no significant damage to the tree.

There’s a big chunk of bark missing, you can see the inner wood of the branch exposed between the areas of callous. The bark isn’t being pushed back by the callous, the callous is forming because the bark was damaged in the first place.

 

[sorce]

Looks healthy.

I think the nodule like growth is the same as the nodules they grow everywhere else when healthy, these are just exposed so they're green.

Looking so ripe to root, I'd try to take it as a cutting if the branch is uneccesary for design.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[tsurihaga]

Looks healthy.

I think the nodule like growth is the same as the nodules they grow everywhere else when healthy, these are just exposed so they're green.

Looking so ripe to root, I'd try to take it as a cutting if the branch is uneccesary for design.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

Thank you for the advice, Sorce. right now I’m just still observing it, a little tempted to just cut/or trim the nodule/callous off, not sure if that will do more harm than good. but looks like cutting the branch would be a better option.

these babies are driving me nuts.
-tsurihaga