Brown Tips on Juniper

[RockyGrowth]

I have a young juniper I bought from a bonsai nursery that I was planning on growing into something. They didn’t list the exact species of juniper, but they said it was a cutting from a plant imported out of Japan, so I’m assuming Shimpaku or something along that line. Earlier this spring I planted it into the ground, however that was probably a mistake as its roots were very minimal and the plant was small. Currently the tips are now browning, including on new growth. I haven’t done any tests yet but I was wondering if someone had any ideas. Could it be sunlight? It’s getting probably somewhere between 6-8 hours of sunlight a day, but maybe more. I would love to hear your guys thoughts and thank you for the time.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

It could be a lot of things. Brown tips happen when the plant can't push enough water to them, or when they are otherwise damaged.

The damage can come from things like spider mites or mechanical damage.
The water issue is more complex, unfortunately. It can be caused by "too much fertilizer" causing salt stress, or a lack of water in the soil, or an excess of water in the soil which has caused root death/suffocation. In the latter two cases, the whole plant will look weakish. In the case of over fertilization, the whole plant will look vibrant but the tips will suffer.
Heat can also be an issue, if a plant unexpectedly moves from the shade to full sun, and close to the ground (where it's hot!) this might damage the tender growing tips that haven't formed a cuticle layer yet.

The difficult part is that whatever it is, dead tips don't come back to life and the plant will need to produce new ones.
So whatever treatment you do, it might take weeks to seasons for the issue to be visually resolving.

If you can logically trace back what you did to your plant, it might give you some pointers as to where to look for a cause.
Sometimes it needs immediate action, sometimes it's better to wait it out.

 

[RockyGrowth]

My best assumption can be location and when I moved it. At the time, I hadn’t known about hydrophobic peat, so initially I was going to plant it into a pot, but once I realized water was pooling I moved it into the ground. The original spot however I realized was only getting 2 hours a day, so that’s where I probably made the first bad choice of moving it three times in a month, which probably put unnecessary stress onto the tree. Currently it looks more weak than vibrant as I originally saw it, and the soil I planted it into is probably quite old and can contain little moisture. Would the best bet be to move it or increase water to see if that makes a difference?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

That’s a lot of moves.

First off plants often resent being moved, especially when the media differs from the one they are used to. They often show this on their new growth.

Junipers do like more sun though, so likely better to move it.

In our area, just a bit south of yours, we have a lot of clay layer in the soil. So planting holes in the layer just pool water. Thus most often we plant atop these areas with a soil build up to get decent drainage.

So check area the new area before planting. And shade the juniper a bit… due to the multiple moves… for a week or so.

Cheers
DSD sends