juniper dormancy???? help please

18 years ago

Hello all...First off i'm a newbie bonsai owner and realize that its not unusual to lose a plant possibly. I purchased a juniper on my way home from a vacation in florida in August of this year. It has been doing well and looking healthy so far until now. I was under the impression that you were supposed to bring your plant in in the winters (newbie)and remain outdoors all other seasons which i've now discovered isnt the correct way i think??? My question is that it is now Dec.11 and we've had a couple of snows and its around 25 to 30 degrees outside at night is it still possible for me to plant it outside? I've gathered that I should plant my pot and all with some mulch overtop for the winter for my plant to enter the dormant stage. It is still green and looks healthy but is now starting to become a bit brittle. Is it already dying? Can I just take it from indoors straight outside to the ground or is there a better way? Should i put it outside for awhile or something to let it get "used" to the cold weather? I'm really at a loss and any help would be appreciated. I hope I haven't already killed my first. Thanks Guys....and gals..

West

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Comments (9)

lucy
18 years ago
It's too cold for it to go out now without having gotten used to the cold earlier. If it's going brittle it's not so much from being indoors (yet) but probably has been watered way too often - the usual cause of newbie juniper death (sorry!). They need more of the soil than less to be dry between waterings, and together with the slow draining stuff they usually come planted in, it doesn't take long for them to expire. Be prepared for rust colored foliage any day now. The thing is, they can look great for the longest time before showing anything wrong, but brittleness is a bad sign... you think they're drying out, so you water them, but it has the opposite effect.
west420
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for the reply Lucy first of all. The rust color foilage is starting to show some now but all of the plant isn't brittle just a few small parts. Am I correct thinking that there is nothing more I can do for this plant? Should I just let it dry out some? Place it under a light or in a window or something? Or is it just a newbie mistake and chalk it up as a goner? Thanks again....Guess I learned my first lesson the hard way. If it makes a difference it is in a pretty good size base (About 8" x 16" marble pot.)
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Hey Arktrees, I apologize for the delay here, and thank you for your clarification. I know things in text can definitely be misunderstood, I'm glad that was the case. So, I have consulted a few others in person about this tree since my original post. First, my friend that I referenced in my original post is actually a garden employee at the local Home Depot. Has been for years and knows his way around plants. I believe he is Florida Nurseryman Certified, but dont quote me on that. He suggested I give it some more time and see what happens. Second, I stopped at the Lowe's by me. I brought in some (better) pictures, explained what had been done and asked for help. They suggested a UFO landed and sucked the sapwood dry. Not really, but their answer was useless and suggested I put 10-10-10 on it. I find that my local Lowe's is hit-or-miss on knowledge, so their answer, sadly, didn't surprise me. Third, I stopped at a local nursery and again explained the situation to the lady, who happened to be both the owner and an arborist. She actually came by to look at it, which, in my book, was a win. Her verdict? It isn't dead, but it's getting there. She gave the survival chances to be 30%. She couldn't say for 100% certainty, but it was likely the carpenter ants. They seem to have built quite a massive nest under and within the rootball, causing the root system to fail, allowing for bigger problems. This made sense, as she dumped a 5 gallon bucket of water on it and, sure enough, it rushed underground, exposing some massive air holes in the root system. She suggested I put a hose on it twice a week for about 30 minutes, and if I didn't see any progress within a month, it was a goner. She also pointed out some branches to trim off so that the tree wasn't internally trying to save its entire system, allowing it to focus on just a few select branches. So, I've spent the evening trimming and hopefully it'll show me some love in return. I'll post a followup in a month when I know if it's going to come back or not. One quick correction though, its 20" in circumference, not diameter, I apologize. And for what its worth, it was less than an inch around when I bought it. Three gallon container at Home Depot. Again, thanks for your advice and followup. I hope you get those birds under control.
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Mike, Many people, like myself, can't really comment on your question. I put my trees in my attached garage once they have dropped all or the majority of their leaves. I have a sun room that I can use as an intermediate to ripen a few more figs and let some trees get a couple more weeks to a month or so extra energy stores to the roots. But other than that, when they go to the garage they aren't waking until late March. I do have a question for you though, what is the temperature of the unheated sunny room? If it is the same as the darkish basement, then I would go with the basement until they start to wake. Another thing to consider with basement is the temperature of the concrete slab, and this is only if the floor is unfinished concrete. Point is, if your pots are setting directly on the floor they could be a bit cooler than the air. you could put a temperature probe in the soil of your tree in the basement and see what that reads. I think the root zone temperature is very important in keeping dormancy. Another thing you could possibly do in an unfinished basement/basement room is put your trees in a corner and use some tarp or plastic sheeting from wall to wall on each side of the corner to try to somewhat corral cooler air from the walls and contain it among the trees. Just a thought.
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I'm confused. What soil is great? Trees are always 'damaged' when you replace the soil. How badly they are damaged depends a lot on how skillful the grower is at repotting. Some damage is due to the number of fine roots killed by desiccation and breakage as the soil is removed, and some of the damage is intentional (root pruning). Your juniper likes to be repotted when it's warm and the plant is about to enjoy a period of robust growth. Repot now and it will likely sulk all winter, which is why I suggested dealing with your drainage issues via methodology rather than repotting, until the plant is in the part of it's growth cycle when it will recover fastest from the work. I took into account that you might not be an expert waterer yet; and that's why the suggestion to wait a bit to repot and put the other tips to use in the interim were aimed directly at increasing your margin for error. If you intend to make bonsai a lifelong pursuit, you'll need to know something about how plants work and how water behaves in soils. Bonsai is to container gardening as competitive high diving is to jumping off a diving board. There's a difficulty factor. I can help you understand soils. See the link below. It will save you a lot of heartache and you'll use it to help you improve your ability to grow anything in a container. Al Here is a link that might be useful: How water behaves in soils
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lucy
18 years ago
Well, there's no reason (your business after all) not to keep it on a sill for a while and sees what happens, water in a week to 10 days and if it doesn't improve (new growth) within a few wks after that... it's your call.
bonsai_moss
18 years ago
I like one of the others advice - I would try puting your juniper on your window sill to get it used to the cold......and keep the foliage misted, and also don't let the pot/roots completely dry out.

But my advice after that? After your juniper has been in the cool windowsill for 10 days or so, put it in your refridgerator until spring.

The only problem with the fridge is that the air is very dry, stale, and recycled. You'd have to open the fridge door here and there every day to let fresh air in. Keep it misted with water -

I did this a few winters ago, and had a store bought juniper bonsai from Home Depot (that someone gave me in November of 2003)....... and I ended up keeping the Juniper in my fridge til spring. I kept it misted it with fresh water so it wouldn't dry out. It did real well and survived.

Good luck.

David
zone 5b NH
Kayzar
18 years ago
i have a juniper that is 2 years old. It is in the hight of summer in australia and i have it in a patio enclosure which gets a lot of sun. my brother put some yaccuas in front of it for a week (Ii was out) and it went a pale green and bristley. Wat do i do??

Kayzar
Kayzar
18 years ago
yes lucy, it is me from the intro to bonsai forum
lucy
18 years ago
Kayzar - put the Yucca blocked plants back in better light.. it's not rocket science!
rjj1
18 years ago
If it's pale green and brittle, toss it, it's dead.

randy
Fred_Jedi
18 years ago
Put it outside and bury the pot in mulch. If it isn't dead now it will be shortly!!!

juniper dormancy???? help please

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lucy

west420
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juniper dormancy???? help please

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