Juniper Bonsai

[ani]

My son has 2 juniper bonsai trees. He usually keeps them outside during the day and when it gets chilly, he brings them in at night. He mists and waters them everyday. This has been going on now for over a year. We live near Dayton Ohio and we have had quite the late winter. His Bonsai tree's are turning brown and yellow, however the needles are very soft.
Can anyone help?

 

[Adkpk]

Umm, I'm with Tree on the overwatering. Yellow is overwating. The brown is dead but it could just be the old needles dropping off for winter. Sounds like he's done a good job. Bonsai's are tough to keep, a year is a long time. Sounds like you have a green thumb in the family.

 

[underwor]

Junipers need some rest. I put mine in a cooler at the college for about 3 months each winter. Water occasionally, probably about 4 times. Then when you bring them out they take off and grow again. You need to match the climate they would normally grow in. If you have a cool place to leave them for a while. Some just cover them with snow if the area is not too cold and let them winter that way. Hope this helps.

 

[Tree Machine]

I have found Bonsai need very little help in the Winter. Transpiration is little to none so the key is to keep the root hairs from completely drying out. Too much watering and you can end up compressing the roots in a block of ice, possibly cracking your pot. I say compressing because water expands upon freezing and who knows what effect that might have on the roots.

The needles, though coated in a thin layer of plant wax (cutin), evaporative losses can happen in the really dry air. Burying them in the snow is not a bad idea, just make sure there's no salt or sno-melt in it.

Also, this is a good time to purchase new bonsai specimens. Sometimes the nursery section of home outlet and department stores close those sections altogether because nobody's buying. If they have junipers out there in the cold, they probably have a clearance tag on them. Reducing the little crowns to rough-in the shape is better done in dormancy, though the repotting, root pruning and anchoring seem to go better around the time they wake up in the Spring.

 

[Tree Machine]

Oh, and welcome to the site, Ani!

 

[ani]

Thank you TreeCo, Adrpo, Unde Wor and Tree machine for all of your comments. Makes sense to me and I will pass on all of your advice.
Also thanks for making me feel so welcomed on my very first visit!
Ani

 

[Tree Machine]

Hey man, you come back anytime.


Also know that we love pictures.

My (2) current bonsai (a (miniature) giant sequoia and a dwarfed blueberry bush) are buried in the snow. I could offer a picture, but the sequoia, it looks like a juniper or a little cedar coming out of a snowdrift. The bush blueberry, I'll find that somewhere, sometime this Spring.

It's really interesting all the species that can be used for bonsai, both conifers and deciduous, flowering trees, fruit trees, bushes. I used to have a real bonsai habit. It's a major influence that prompted me full-scale into the tree care industry. Sorta turned in the bonsai hobby in exchange for my current career.

 

[Tree Machine]

Ahhh, there it is. Doesn't look so giant, does it? An Indiana monster.
Training starts this Spring.

 

[BonsaiJedi]

ahhh...finally some bonsai chatter!
As a rule, unless your tree is tropical, it needs to live outside (or at least have a dormant season). They must go through all 4 seasons just as though they were growing in the ground. I have been into bonsai for 8 years now and I live in the cold of MN. Even my chinese and/or japanese junipers live outdoors year round, albiet under protection. I keep my trees on a bench I constructed some years ago and it doubles as a winter storage when the trees go under it, I rake leaves several feet deep around the pots, and I wrap the bench in a sheet. Since I'm in Zone 4, any plant that could live here (really anything Zone 5 or lower) stays outdoors year round and any plant less hardy gets wintered in an unheated room in my house. Any tropical tree lives indoors year round and watering is reduced in the winter. I would be ahppy to post a bibliography of decent english bonsai books if there is interest.

"Bonsai" found in Home Depots and shopping malls should be referred to as "Fauxsai" as they give the wrong impression of this art form.

 

[BonsaiJedi]

Oh yeah...nice work on the Sequoia, Tree Machine! I've been growing one here in MN that I brought back as a seedling from Muir Woods in CA 7 years ago. Mine looks much like yours, although in a 10" pot.