Does this juniper look sick?

damon00

It's a shimpaku juniper and his been very healthy and growing very vigorously. But, just within the past few days the tips of the needles have all suddenly turned brown. Should I be concerned about this?

Here's a couple picks.

Attached Images

	BrownTips01.jpg (54.4 KB, 111 views)
	BrownTips02.jpg (46.2 KB, 102 views)

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Mcspeed

Assuming the first pix is the sick one and the second is before it got sick. Check for spider mites, and tell us about the soil, your watering habits, and work done on it lately.

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damon00

Actually both pictures were taken at the same time. One is just taken with a flash and one isn't. I wasn't sure which would be easier to see.

I checked for spidermites and there aren't any that I could find. I did the white paper test.

The soil is a very free draining soil, but the rootball still has alot of potting soil from the nursery in it that tends to hold water for quite a while.

I tend to water it when it needs it. Not on a schedule. Currently that tends to be about once every 3 days, since the soil around the rootball holds water for so long. I use a chopstick and sometimes a moisture meter as well to test the moisture level.

The only work that's been done on it lately was a bunch of wiring done about 3 weeks ago.

raj

looks pretty good to me. Did you do any pinching or pruning of the foliage recently? Maybe that's what's making the tips brown.

damon00

No, I haven't done any pinching or anything else to the tips.

Hopefully I am just over-reacting. It seems wierd that the tips would turn brown like this though...

teddybonsai

Mcspeed

Could be from the wiring, could also be the mix of the 2 soils. The interface between the 2 soils can be problematic, the bonsai soil will dry much faster than the "dirt", so it's possibly an issue of the bonsai soil drying and killing new roots in that zone, or possibly the original soil causing some root rot.

That said it doesn't look terrible to me, but that is from looking at 1 pix, with no referance as to what it looked like a short while ago.

__________________
If at first you don't succeed -- skydiving is not for you.


Always remember that you're unique -- just like everyone else

Enjoy this day.
Bill

damon00

Thanks guys, I'm feeling a bit better about it now. I'll definitely be keeping a very close eye on this.

I guess it's possible that I could have done some damage with the wiring, and since it's a juniper the damage didn't show up for a few weeks. Something to think about anyway.

The two soil types has been a real bane as far as watering goes. I'll be glad when it's ready to re-pot and I can get rid of some more of that potting soil. I wouldn't be surprised if that had something to do with it.

damon00

This issue got quite a bit worse, and after doing some research I'm pretty sure that it's Phomopsis Twig Blight. It spread to the rest of the foliage and has also spread to the rest of my shimpaku juniper.

I read some sites that had info on it, and based on their recommendations I have cut out all of the blighted twigs and branches(which really didn't help the look of any of them) and sprayed them all liberaly with a copper based fungicide.

I'm really bummed out about this. If anyone here has had any experience with this blight I would really like to hear what you know about it, and what experieces you had dealing with it.