Looking for advice - Juniper Bonsai

nothing much more to be done - other than wait.

Give them decent sun, make sure they don’t fully dry out and don’t repot, don’t trim roots or foliage, don’t fertilize.
 
nothing much more to be done - other than wait.

Give them decent sun, make sure they don’t fully dry out and don’t repot, don’t trim roots or foliage, don’t fertilize.

I don't understand this advise quoted above.

Yes, check on these junipers daily. Don't just wait.

Yes, junipers need at least half day of sun or more. When healthy, they are generally "full sun" trees. Sunlight can be partially dappled, but should be closer to full sun than to half shade.

Yes, water them to prevent drying out. They want to be wetter than barely moist. They generally never like to be in standing water for more than a few hours. A moisture meter can be misleading, more reliable is inserting your own finger at least as deep as your burying your fingernail to the quick. If it feels cool and moist, no need to water. If it feels warm or dry. Time to water. Notice heft of the pot. A dry pot will be light compared to the wet pot. After you have a few wet to near dry cycles of experience, just by noticing the heft of the pot you will know if the pot needs water. Water immediately, don't wait. If soil drains well, natural rain cycles, like a 4 day episode of rainy days, generally will not cause any problems. Do not have the tree in a tray that collects water during rain episodes. Just let it drain naturally during rainy episodes and it will be fine, Similar with snow if snow is expected to melt within a few days of falling.

More trees have been killed by moisture meters than by those who use the human finger to determine soil moisture. Almost without exception, experienced bonsai growers do no use moisture meters, they are a waste of money. If you can return it, do so..

Junipers do not like their roots being disturbed more than once every 5 years or so. Once in an inorganic mix, you only need to repot when aesthetics require a repot, preferably with at least 5 years or more between repotting efforts. I had a juniper in pumice that did not get repotted for 15 years at a stretch. So do not repot your juniper unless absolutely necessary, either for health of tree or for an aesthetic change of pot. Both should be planned ahead. I believe it is too late in the year for your area for repotting. But others who live near you should advise.

Your foliage looks "burned" at the tips, don't do any pruning this year. You can always prune a little more next year. Just let it grow this year.

Fertilizer. I would give a dilute dose of fertilizer, later this summer, any liquid fertilizer will do, but use it at a dilute concentration. If the label calls for 15 milliliters, use no more than 5 milliliters. In other words 1/3 to 1/4 strength. Keep it dilute. Similarly if you use cake type fertilizers only add about a quarter of what the label recommends for this year. I'd fertilize around 4th of July and once again around beginning of August. Then call it quits for this year. Next year you can start with a late spring dose and then dose once every month. but only if new growth looks normal. If you still have a lot of burned foliage hold off on fertilizer.
 
Well based on the colour of my two Junipers...I think it might be safe to say that I've killed my first Juniper (front, cascade) during it's repot and move outside. It's sad, that's three years of growing down the drain. Luckily it seems my second Juniper that I just purchased has survived it's repot (which was questionable at first).

Do you agree?
 

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Definitely a dead tree there sorry. The other one looks healthy though!

keep an eye on watering, your soil looks a tad dry (based on a long distance photo) but also looks like it has a lot of organic content and will likely stay wet for a long time when it is watered. Watering is difficult to master and it’ll be up to you to figure out when and how much.
 
Definitely a dead tree there sorry. The other one looks healthy though!

keep an eye on watering, your soil looks a tad dry (based on a long distance photo) but also looks like it has a lot of organic content and will likely stay wet for a long time when it is watered. Watering is difficult to master and it’ll be up to you to figure out when and how much.

Damn...I thought so...sigh, losing my first tree makes me sad, especially seeing as I was getting ready to start shaping pads on the cascade.

The second Juniper was a nursery purchase this spring, I repotted it with the soil I had at the time and it started to yellow a bit on the tips but has since recovered and seems ok now. I've been very diligent in not letting it get over wet as I didn't really want to repot 'again' with a different soil, maybe in a year or so I'll put it in a better soil.
 
If youre going to get sad over 3yrs of effort, unfortunately you wont get much empathy here. We all have killed trees. I lost trees this winter as well. The saddest thread on this site is someone losing possibly the best native pinus strobus in the world after 45yrs in training.

What did we learn? Juniper inside bad. Juniper outside good. Juniper in heavy organic soil bad. Juniper in looser inorganic soil good. Constant moving bad.

We never saw photos of your repot or the roots or anything lile that so, difficult to comment on state of tree (the croaked one) at repot, but its possible it was a gonner before the repot.
 
If youre going to get sad over 3yrs of effort, unfortunately you wont get much empathy here. We all have killed trees. I lost trees this winter as well. The saddest thread on this site is someone losing possibly the best native pinus strobus in the world after 45yrs in training.

What did we learn? Juniper inside bad. Juniper outside good. Juniper in heavy organic soil bad. Juniper in looser inorganic soil good. Constant moving bad.

We never saw photos of your repot or the roots or anything lile that so, difficult to comment on state of tree (the croaked one) at repot, but its possible it was a gonner before the repot.

45 years...oof that's horrifying, however no matter the time, 3 months, 3 years, or 30 years, it's time invested and it still sucks.

I've started using a different soil and yes all my trees are outside now (except for my new Jades)

Attached is a photo of the roots at repot of the now dying tree.
 

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What did we learn? Juniper inside bad. Juniper outside good. Juniper in heavy organic soil bad. Juniper in looser inorganic soil good. Constant moving bad.
Maybe too that transitioning from indoors to outside in the sun may need to be pretty gradual.
 
Well based on the colour of my two Junipers...I think it might be safe to say that I've killed my first Juniper (front, cascade) during it's repot and move outside. It's sad, that's three years of growing down the drain. Luckily it seems my second Juniper that I just purchased has survived it's repot (which was questionable at first).

Do you agree?
This soil looks bone dry. Are you still watering them at all?
 
@JasonL Sorry about the tree. As was said, we've all lost trees. But look at it this way, you've learned a lot of lessons that may make your future trees much, much healthier in the long run. This is one of the main ways we get better.
 
This soil looks bone dry. Are you still watering them at all?
Yes, but because of the current soil I've been monitoring and moderating the water so that it doesn't stay completely saturated. It's honestly just the surface that looks dry in the photo...if I pull back the surface layer it's still damp underneath.

I don't want to do another repot at this point as I don't want to stress the tree too much (the living one) by trying to get it into another soil.
 
@JasonL Sorry about the tree. As was said, we've all lost trees. But look at it this way, you've learned a lot of lessons that may make your future trees much, much healthier in the long run. This is one of the main ways we get better.

Thanks, it's frustrating, not the end of the world but still sucks. Yes, learning this process is definitely interesting, frustrating, challenging, and fun.
 
Thanks, it's frustrating, not the end of the world but still sucks. Yes, learning this process is definitely interesting, frustrating, challenging, and fun.

Truth.

When I first got interested in bonsai, I was daydreaming about a beautiful Japanese Maple on my desk. Those dreams were dashed quickly, as I learned that most trees need to be outside. Using granular soil so roots can get air was another mind blower, as I assumed potting soil was the best for everything, and that roots wouldn't need air.

The folks here on b-nut have helped save a lot of my trees from myself.
 
Truth.

When I first got interested in bonsai, I was daydreaming about a beautiful Japanese Maple on my desk. Those dreams were dashed quickly, as I learned that most trees need to be outside. Using granular soil so roots can get air was another mind blower, as I assumed potting soil was the best for everything, and that roots wouldn't need air.

The folks here on b-nut have helped save a lot of my trees from myself.
Same...that's why my initial juniper lived inside for the last three years (and seemed to do well)...whenever I often saw pics of most Bonsai, they were inside for some reason.

Soil I had no idea, like you said, why not regular potting soil, trees grow in the ground outside...recently bought a coarse soil (attached) to try with a couple of trees to see how it works. Eventually when I do a repot on my other Juniper, it will go in something like this I think...experiment and learn I guess.
 

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@JasonL you say you’ve had your juniper for 3 years (meaning you’ve had an interest in bonsai for that amount of time) but you keep mentioning the “bonsais inside” thing. In those 3 years have you not seen photos or videos of actual bonsai nurseries or some of our own gardens?

I’m sorry if this reply seems a little harsh but I’m struggling to understand why you still believe your juniper belongs inside and I’m almost sure you still don’t trust us as you keep mentioning that your juniper was thriving for the 3 years it was inside and only died now once you’d listened to the advice posted here on bnut.

Here are some videos of actual “outdoor” bonsai gardens, you might even spot some junipers in some of those garden




 
I honestly thought so too...I think the spring weather did them in (too wet)...I'll do my best to keep my others alive.

It's not the "spring weather". Trees don't grow in caves (or in other words, indoors). You might have gotten away with a few years of it, but eventually all trees WILL die from being kept indoors. As long as they have the correct bonsai soil, they all thrive outdoors where they are meant to be.
 
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