名媛直播

I am pretty new to the bonsai world, so it is still a learning process!

I recently got a Juniper 名媛直播 from a local sale and realized it was heavily pot bound in a tiny bonsai pot. I thought it was a good idea to return it into a training pot for further development. I tried my best to not tear and rip the root system as I removed it from it's original pot. I carefully teased the roots and added it into a training pot in the picture. Filled it with cactus soil which was the closes draining soil I could find. After about 4 days, I noticed the needles are turning brown starting from the inside! My first guess was that I shocked my bonsai going from a tiny bonsai pot to a training pot!

Not sure what I can do at this point, but I fear my guy is doomed. I was hoping to find some advice on how to handle my poor tree!

Hello and welcome
The beginners sickness: I need to do something with my tree. Watch Peter Chans ( Herons bonsai) video on repotting.
If you are new to bonsai first thing you need to learn is to keep your tree alive which means watering it , which is already hard enough for a lot of people.
But you did what you did so first of all where are you keeping your tree? ( outside or inside)?

I am guilty of being sick. AHAH

The root base was rather small to begin with when I removed it from the bonsai pot, not sure if that plays into it. So it lives on my balcony in which it will receive about 5 hours of direct sunlight before the sun get blocked by the roofing. I only water it when the soil feels dry to touch, so that was about every 2-3 days depending on the weather. I normally check the soil each morning before I head to work around 630AM. Might be good to mention that I live in Tacoma, WA.

BTW, thank you for the quick reply!

JayVo wrote: I am guilty of being sick. AHAH

The root base was rather small to begin with when I removed it from the bonsai pot, not sure if that plays into it. So it lives on my balcony in which it will receive about 5 hours of direct sunlight before the sun get blocked by the roofing. I only water it when the soil feels dry to touch, so that was about every 2-3 days depending on the weather. I normally check the soil each morning before I head to work around 630AM. Might be good to mention that I live in Tacoma, WA.

BTW, thank you for the quick reply!

Outside is good, never bring it inside.
Not much you can do now but water it, and hope. Do not fertilise untill you see new growth. Only thing it needs now is sun (=food) and water.
Btw , this is an international forum referring to Tacoma, WA doesn’t imply we all automatically know your local climate ( I’m in Geel,BE ……)

Are these the old needles that are turning yellow? It is normal for chinese juniper to drop older foliage, and drop it all in one fell swoop. If all the green tips stay vibrant green, that is probably what is happening.

I've seen a lot of people advising that I should keep the tree in the shade after I repot. In which I didnt, I left it in the same spot. Im just hoping its that time of the season where its preparing for winter and dropping its needles.

Haha sorry I shouldn't have assumed. Normal afternoon temps have been around 80F with little humidity.

Yeah these are old needles but they were pretty green before I castrated it into a training pot. Im hoping that you're right. I'll definitely keep yall updated.

Thanks again for the quick reply!

JayVo wrote: Yeah these are old needles but they were pretty green before I castrated it into a training pot.

Even with no repotting, when a juniper grows it will reach a point where the amount of foliage transpires too much compared to the amount of water it can pick up from the roots. It will then react by shedding the older foliage and keeping the younger one, and it will usually do so when the season gets to its hottest. In most of the northern hemisphere that would be about now indeed.

Even more so if a portion of the roots has been taken away, further reducing the water intake.
Giving it some shade usually helps limiting the effect, but only temporarily, as a juniper wants a lot of sun (meaning you can’t keep in the shade forever) and the imbalance would still be there when you move the plant back in full sun.

As long as new growth shows up, the shedding is just physiological and nothing to worry too much about. With proper experience you’ll learn how to have less impact with the next repotting.

BofhSkull wrote:

JayVo wrote: Yeah these are old needles but they were pretty green before I castrated it into a training pot.

Even with no repotting, when a juniper grows it will reach a point where the amount of foliage transpires too much compared to the amount of water it can pick up from the roots. It will then react by shedding the older foliage and keeping the younger one, and it will usually do so when the season gets to its hottest. In most of the northern hemisphere that would be about now indeed.

Even more so if a portion of the roots has been taken away, further reducing the water intake.
Giving it some shade usually helps limiting the effect, but only temporarily, as a juniper wants a lot of sun (meaning you can’t keep in the shade forever) and the imbalance would still be there when you move the plant back in full sun.

As long as new growth shows up, the shedding is just physiological and nothing to worry too much about. With proper experience you’ll learn how to have less impact with the next repotting.

I'm hoping that this is just the physiological process of the tree as the season slowly changes but I realized the soil mix I used has fertilizer it in.....This could definitely be fertilizer burn that could be ruining the roots. Do you think its smart to change out the soil into something that does not contain fertilizer? My fear is that the tree is already weak and that might be the nail in the coffin if I transfer it out again.

What do most people do when they experience fertilizer burn anyways??

this is not fertilizer burn.
Fertilizer burn only occurs when you overfertilize, to a level that the plant looses water from the roots instead of the other way around. Not a single commercial potting mix has that sort of fertilizer concentration. Besides that, fertilizer burn in juniper is in the growing tips first.

As said, if it is only the old needles, it is the normal annual shedding of old foliage.