Wow! Collected an outstanding juniper yesterday!!!

[Daniel son STL]

Surprisingly their wasn’t much of a root ball, well either that or it all fell off. Some fine riots were caught in the matting. I really hope it survives. This is my biggest tree by far. it’s basically a finished bonsai aside from having to regrow the roots and add some wire. Brought it inside last night bc temps were dropping to just freezing. I had trouble getting this bad boy through my door! At first I had it slanted more for a cascade style. I can pretty much go any direction with the style of this tree. So many many branches and dead wood. I imagine this juniper is at least 20 years old in the ground it’s entire life.

Spent 3 hours pruning foliage back do to the loss of roots, just don’t think I took off enough so I expect some die back. It’s anchored down as well as I could get and i put it in almost all Akadama with a bit of pine bark bc that’s all I had on me.

Any advise guys? I know I’m in over my head on this one. I’ve collected a few junipers this season with success, but they’re about 1/100 the size of this one lol

Next to a cpl of the photos is another roadside junny I collected a cpl weeks ago. Bit of a size difference there!!!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Bright diffuse light, but do not let the foliage dry out. If you don't have a greenhouse or cold frame, consider building a humidity tent. You have to keep it out of the wind. Do not overtrim the foliage. Do not overwater the roots. It's all about maintaining high humidity so the foliage doesn't have high water needs while the roots are recovering. Some people use misters, but with a humidity tent you don't need them. If you are keeping it in a greenhouse, misters will help.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Mist it regularly as junipers can apparently absorb moisture through the foliage. I hope you don’t end up regretting using the akadama instead of pumice or something else to cut it.

 

[Daniel son STL]

I have been misting. Just tossed a really shitty green house in the trash unfortunately. I’ll rig something up. The pics are after I removed a butt ton of foliage. Was trying to balance roots and foliage at least somewhat. I’m going to throw some clear plastic around her for a cpl weeks then to help maintain humidity and just keep misting. Thanks so much again for the fast response. I’m going to put it in partial sun for a cpl weeks also is what I’m thinking.

Btw anybody know what species this is?

 

[Daniel son STL]

Mist it regularly as junipers can apparently absorb moisture through the foliage. I hope you don’t end up regretting using the akadama instead of pumice or something else to cut it.

What do you mean “to cut it”?
Do you mean like sharp edges to split the roots?

Thanks

 

[WNC Bonsai]

What do you mean “to cut it”?
Do you mean like sharp edges to split the roots?

Thanks

No I mean as in diluting it. Akadama is usually used to help keep soil moist. I generally use pine bark as a replacemnt along with pumice for drainage. I haven’t partaken of the akadama kool-aid.

 

[rockm]

Surprisingly their wasn’t much of a root ball, well either that or it all fell off. Some fine riots were caught in the matting. I really hope it survives. This is my biggest tree by far. it’s basically a finished bonsai aside from having to regrow the roots and add some wire. Brought it inside last night bc temps were dropping to just freezing. I had trouble getting this bad boy through my door! At first I had it slanted more for a cascade style. I can pretty much go any direction with the style of this tree. So many many branches and dead wood. I imagine this juniper is at least 20 years old in the ground it’s entire life.

Spent 3 hours pruning foliage back do to the loss of roots, just don’t think I took off enough so I expect some die back. It’s anchored down as well as I could get and i put it in almost all Akadama with a bit of pine bark bc that’s all I had on me.

Any advise guys? I know I’m in over my head on this one. I’ve collected a few junipers this season with success, but they’re about 1/100 the size of this one lol

Next to a cpl of the photos is another roadside junny I collected a cpl weeks ago. Bit of a size difference there!!!

First, DON'T start formulating a design plan for this tree. It is far from successfully collected. Starting to think about design can lead to ill-informed pruning or fiddling to work towards that design.

Consider this tree to be dead to you design wise. You have to keep it alive for at least two years for ANY work to be done.

It is most likely a common juniper (juniper communis) which are notoriously hard to collect alive, even when they have roots.

I don't know how this tree was collected, but a landscape juniper that large and healthy would most likely have an extensive root mass under it.

It sounds to me as though you've lost more than 80 percent of it.

That means the above advice on a greenhouse and misting are critical for its survival.

Good luck!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice haul.
I'm not expert in juniper ID, but either Juniperus communis or one of the many varieties of Juniperus chinensis if this was a juniper from a landscape planting. It is also possible that to some degree the landscape J chinensis has naturalized in some of the disturbed areas around Saint Louis.

You don't have any more freezing weather in the near future, get this tree outdoors as soon as possible. Junipers do absorb water through the foliage, misting foliage is critical during recovery, it is not just for humidity you need to do the misting. If you have a commercial greenhouse with a mist bed, you would probably have the misting set for every 15 minutes for 8 hours a day. But that is a professional set up, used mainly by large wholesale nurseries, even retail nurseries don't use such a system.

@rockm is correct, though I do hope you get lucky and this tree survives. Don't do anything except try to keep it alive for 2 years. I collected a landscape juniper many years ago, it took 5 years before it showed enough growth that I was certain it was recovered from collecting. It takes a while for these trees to recover. You likely have a really nice trunk in there. The wait will be worth it if it makes it.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Be sure it’s secured in the container so it can’t move around.
If you don’t have many roots, you are basically making a cutting, so don’t go crazy watering the soil, make it seek water.
Mist the trunk and foliage several times a day, keeping it in shade and protected from wind.
Don’t move the tree around. New roots are easily damaged.
Don’t remove any more foliage.
If the interior foliage turns yellow and drops, it’s a good sign. If the overall hue turns dull and gray, it’s a bad sign.
If the tree lives, you have plenty of time to make a styling plan. It will be several years before that is necessary.
Good luck.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

This is not a juniperus communis, because the communis has needle foliage all over. It doesn't make scale foliage, ever.
In some parts of the Americas (mainly south America) there are other 'common junipers' that are a different family than the actual communis. Bjorn Bjorholm did a video on south american junipers while visiting a nursery there, those were all called common junipers.

All of my junipers do exceptionally bad in akadama soils. They lag behind at least a year in development. I have seedlings in clay cat litter that have developed scale foliage, whereas the ones in akadama are still in their juvenile needle foliage. The height difference is about 200%, as is the amount of branches. It might be my climate, but I believe soft clay soils like 'extra hard' akadama are just not ideal for junipers. I've never seen one in the wild growing in clay soils.

This is a majestic beast of a juniper though. I hope it makes it!

 

[rockm]

This is not a juniperus communis, because the communis has needle foliage all over. It doesn't make scale foliage, ever.
In some parts of the Americas (mainly south America) there are other 'common junipers' that are a different family than the actual communis. Bjorn Bjorholm did a video on south american junipers while visiting a nursery there, those were all called common junipers.

All of my junipers do exceptionally bad in akadama soils. They lag behind at least a year in development. I have seedlings in clay cat litter that have developed scale foliage, whereas the ones in akadama are still in their juvenile needle foliage. The height difference is about 200%, as is the amount of branches. It might be my climate, but I believe soft clay soils like 'extra hard' akadama are just not ideal for junipers. I've never seen one in the wild growing in clay soils.

This is a majestic beast of a juniper though. I hope it makes it!

Communis, chinensis and other common forms of juniper are sold through thousands of nurseries in the U.S. .

 

[Bonsai Nut]

You have to keep it alive for at least two years for ANY work to be done.

And two years might be conservative if it is a big juniper.

 

[Smoke]

Communis, chinensis and other common forms of juniper are sold through thousands of nurseries in the U.S. .

In 35 years I've never seen a communis in a nursery in California, and I'm looking for them. The closest we have is Foemina which is more column like. We do have many regular procumbens, not "nana" that are pretty ugly and unruly.

 

[Daniel son STL]

-Update- the juniper died!

 

[AppleBonsai]

-Update- the juniper died!

 

[Daniel son STL]

i was just kiddin!

:edit: I meant to post this next post one min after the “it died” post” but forgot to hit post thread ,before I fell asleep. So mb about the delay!

-real update-
it’s been a few months now and there was a little die back. Over all it’s doing great. I fully manicured the tree upon collection. Have all new growth coming in now.

After collecting I followed above advice and put a plastic sheet over it to keep foliage damp when misting about three times a day. Kept out of full sun for about two weeks and then full sun rest of summer!

 

[Daniel son STL]

Dang my back is sore, and I’m in decent shape! Now that I cut off some more root and a few more branches shes not as heavy as she was.
Pot it was in was falling apart big time and it’s been 3 yrs since collection so I decided Id give it the first repot. This is my biggest pot unfortunately and I didn’t feel like building another one so it’s a little tight. Probably have to repot it again in 2 years oh well. Might have another pot for it by then.

tomorrow I’ll probably start adding guy wires bc basically everything needs to be pulled down!

 

[Daniel son STL]

So much deadwood I’m not sure what to lime sulfer and what to wack off. Where’s bjorn when you need him….

 

[TN_Jim]

dang!