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DDMcKenna
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Location: Florida, USA, just north of Daytona Beach

Juni's Little Sister!

Good Morning All!

Well, Juni is no longer. Still not absolutely certain exactly what I did wrong but it was interesting that it happened so suddenly. She was healthy and seemed to love the sun so I don't know if repotting her was too intense this time or what. I was very careful rinsing her roots and tried not to damage any of the fine little hair-like roots. I had one other idea and that was when I repotted her. I used a little wooden stick that was the left-over remnant of burning a stick of incense. So there was the dye in the wood of that stick of incense that I used to prop her up in the soil to make sure she stayed straight until she regained her strength in her root system. I don't know if there was anything in the stick of incense that might have poisoned her.

Anyway, she didn't suffer long. Dried up really fast and that was it. So now, I have her little sister which I haven't named yet. Going to let my girlfriend help me name her. But she is just a baby thing. I have three pictures here, one of Juni as a baby, the second is what Juni grew into after nearly two years, and the third is her little sister....
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I would like to keep this new one more closely cropped and bushy like Juni was as a baby as opposed to letting her get a couple very long branches that reach far from the pot she's in. I am hoping to train this one to grow the way I want it to. I think I have a fairly good idea how to water and take care of her. I won't be doing any of that aggressive repotting again. Maybe just switching out the loose soil like I did for Juni the first year. And no more foreign object in her planter!

David

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I'm sorry that you lost Juni -- you were taking such good care. :(

I can't help with the Bonsai aspects, but something occurred to me when you said you rinsed off the roots. My understanding is that conifers have symbiotic root relationship with fungi in the soil. This is actually often true of many trees and a small amount of the soil under the mother plant is said to be beneficial in inoculating the seedling's soil. (Weird huh?)

When I was looking around conifer sites, I noticed they sometimes sell mycorrhiza inoculant and they are packaged separately for different species.

Do you suppose that could have been a related issue?

Good luck with Juni's sister. :-()

Artisans
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Location: Tampa, Florida

JUNIPERS CANNOT BE GROWN INDOORS! That is your problem.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Actually he grows the junipers on a shelf outside. When bonsai are repotted I don't really wash off the roots. I use a fork and a brush to expose the upper parts of the roots and depending on the plant do some teasing and root pruning around the edges. I think rinsing the soil off the roots put her in too much shock. You really did a good job taking care of her.



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