New Itoigawa stem browning?

[akillas]

Greetings,

This is my first post, as i have recently taken up an interest in treekeeping and maybe bonsai one day. I have a gardening background so i understand at least the basic concepts, and i keep a variety of plants/ other trees alive and thriving.

I recently purchased an Itoigawa that seems to be 2 year old(website did not state age). It came with a wired trunk that has been there for 6 months.

Immediately after arriving i repotted with minimal root disturbance(keeping old soil as well)in a bigger 8,5L unglazed clay pot, with the soil being 65% perlite, 10% river sand, the rest peat moss and a bit of humus. 1 cm top layer of perlite as well, and sprinkled some DE earth on it.
Tree has been fertilized at the 1st of each month in the growing season in the nursery, so i followed on that cycle with a nitrogen heavy liquid fert(12/6/4), diluted at half strength of what the instructions say.

After 1 day i noticed salt crystals at various areas spread around the tree, and some stems that used to be green near the base of the branch turning brown. From what i have read online before posting here, salt buildup signals overfertilizing or mineral/bad water, and most sources say fast browning is absolutely bad, and may signal dead/burned branches.

My water is filtered and i let it sit before i use it, and i water every other day in the morning after checking the soil. Pot has excellent drainage. The fertilizer i applied was not so strong by my estimations.

Any help would be appreciated..

 

[bwaynef]

Your pictures don't show me anything I'd be concerned by. Is it possible you're just noticing foliage going thru the maturation process to become a stem?

 

[akillas]

So when light browning begins from the stem of the foliage its just growth?
Im not familiar with junipers or their signals so i thought to ask here for certainty.

Thank you for your answer!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Juniper scales (their leaves) don't live forever. At some point in time, they shrink and die. In young branches, this protects the forming wood below them from external damage like hail, sunlight, wind. Once the branch thickens, those dry and dead scales fall off like how some reptiles shed their skin; the internal size changes, so the outer shell pops off.
What then is left is just woody material and a thin layer of bark.

If the scales go brown on the outer tips of the foliage, that's a problem and you ask us for help. If foliage dies after two or three, or five years, that's perfectly normal, and you can also ask us for help, that's what we're here for.

Try this at home: The branches marked in yellow are connected to the trunk, a little further down you see the branch being darker brown, try rubbing some of those scales off with your finger nail (they can be sharp!) and you can see some smooth bark underneath there. In 2 or 3 years time, that smooth bark will also get the same evolution as the scale -> wood thing. The inner branch will expand, the outer bark will tear and dry and shrivel. You can then peel it off similar to how you can peel a grapevine bark. You can peel it until you reach smooth bark again, which will be more "dusty" in appearance, people sometimes oil it for shows and I think that that makes them look like someone put a bunch of shoe polish on their trees.

 

[akillas]

I looked at a lot of material about conifers and some articles and contents about junipers and none mentioned this process in detail,appreciate that. I did a small scratch and indeed, its as you say!

Is this something you learned from experience or is there some material/book that i can read to learn more in depth about the Shimpaku Itoigawa var. , or maybe Junipers in general?

Thank you,

 

[SeanS]

Not sure if you mentioned but is it inside or outside?

Looks fine to me. Branches and trunks of junipers are generally brown in colour. What you’re seeing is young green shoots maturing and forming brown bark.

 

[akillas]

Always outside, for all my trees.

That concludes it i guess.
Thank you for the relief!!