Problem with repotting!

NathanR

Okay, here's the deal:

About three weeks ago I had some friends over, and one of them managed to knock my Juniper off the balcony (I live on the third floor). My roommate told me after he had brought the tree up; and luckily the tree hadn't fallen out of the pot completely, and this gave me a good chance to inspect the roots. Seeing as though it was spring, I decided to repot the tree in some new soil.


Now the problem:

A week ago I started losing small branches, and today I was poking around in the dirt and noticed that when I repotted it I had left some open spaces in the dirt under the root ball. So I brought the whole tree out of the pot and now I'm back at the beginning! Upon further inspection I noticed that the roots may be dried out or are completley dead; what do Juniper roots look like when they are alive? This tree has a pretty fibrous root system, so there are few thick roots but none are white. Are they supposed to be whitish? Mine are dark red when wet and I see no white tips.

Right now I have it soaking in a bowl of water until I decide what to do with it. Is it dead? Is there still hope? This is not the first time this has happened, some one else knocked another Juniper I had off the balcony but that one survived. Does anybody have any answers or suggestions? Thanks a lot for any help!



Nathan

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Joanie

(looking around) Deal? Like in cards? Or a deal on a used car? Where's the deal? We all love deals.

What's the deal, dude?

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Rock Chester

Nathan,
I think your problem is that you have a problem with finishing tasks, wink!

Joanie

Maybe the deal is secret, Rock, and we don't have the magic password.

Or it's written in invisible ink.

Joanie

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NathanR

Sorry, some how I must I have summited with out knowing it. That's as far as I had gotten!



Nathan

RedPine

When you pot a tree it is a good idea to use a small stick,chopstick,finger or something to work the soil into the roots and water it in well. Those air pockets are what we call ...air pockets and yes they can kill trees if left like that. You need to wire it in the pot and get soil in and around the roots ASAP!!! Then keep an eye on it and don't trim wire and work on the thing until next year, if it pulls through some time it will take to restore vigor. What kind of juniper is this by the way?, some are tuffer' than others.

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NathanR

To be honest, I don't know what type, I couldn't ask the guy who grew it. Probably a common kind.

Can you tell me though what live roots look like? My last had reddish brown roots also; but it died from over pruning. I just can't gauge what live Juniper roots look like because I haven't seen enough. This tree could already be dead, and just flushing out whatever strength it had left!

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Nathan

NathanR

If anybody out there has sufficient experience with Junipers, please let me know. I've seen plenty of roots before, but I'm skeptical about my experience in this matter.

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Nathan

RedPine

Brand new roots will be white,older roots will be that brownish red color you describe and have some strength to them,if you can break apart the roots easily with you finger and they are a dark blackish color then they are dead roots. Why you refuse to pot the tree? I wouldnt give up on it so quickly juniper will only put out those new white roots when they are in active growth..this time of year is the time half of america is repotting junipers. Your tree may not have come out of winter sleep/dormancy yet.


In fall-winter when the weather is cold junips go into a type of sleep trance called dormancy and growth slows down to basicly a hull, they remain that way until spring when they snap out of it and begin to grow again. I repotted like 7 junipers last week and found only one with new root growth,all the rest had just the brown to reddish roots from previous years of growth. Get your tree potted into soil and see what it wants to do for a month, it will either live or die. If it hasn't started it's new spring growth chances are good.



Also,if you need to check and see if a tree is alive right now you can scrape a bit of bark or cut a small branchlet piece off and check the cambium layer to see if it's green and moist.

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