ID and care for a new pre-bonsai

[John in Toledo]

Picked this up for free as a "leftover" at a community plant exchange. Appears to have been dig up right out of a yard and plopped in the black pot. It's about three feet tall. It had two tags - juniper and cedar. Anyone know this plant? Any early advice for a noob? A lot of the tips are brown. Should I snip them?

 

[TN_Jim]

Looks kinda like E. red cedar -not sure about that bark matching it tho.

Is the foliage sharp?

 

[John in Toledo]

Is the foliage sharp?

Kinda. It is pretty prickly if I touch it just right.

 

[TN_Jim]

hmm..ERC bark really doesn’t look like that though, ya know..? even when younger, it’s still smooth and kinda shreddy, but it does have that vibe of foliage, sharp too??

 

[sorce]

Looks good and ERC to me.

Very Rapidly grown with the might larger juvenile foliage.
This could account for the bark.

Mature Trees have different bark entirely.
Not what one would expect of a "juniper" really. IMO. Quite Varying really.

Sorce

 

[Silentrunning]

I don’t like the look of the tips. This time of year they should look more like this....

 

[John in Toledo]

@Silentrunning - the color at the tips concerned me as well. It's not at every tip, but it is happening in quite a few places.

 

[John in Toledo]

Very Rapidly grown with the might larger juvenile foliage.

I'm going to get a larger pot so as to give it some legroom after loosing the muddy soil. I hope that lets it relax and mature.

 

[TN_Jim]

My first thought was that soil is looks kinda suffocating and potentially drowning, I know you know it’s not ideal.
Still though, completely bare rooting erc that is in plain old dirt/soil in my experience, has been a very bad thing.
I think the only ones I have that still thrive, definitely still have some mud in the pot or collander, and root disturbance was minimal, good soil surrounded and chopsticked in.....

however, some of those trees accidentally I murdered, I probably forced some things at the time that inflicted a way worse damage, and maybe the bare root wasn’t the nails into the box..or bonfire