New Juniper Bonsai help!

[Bonsai juniper]

I got a new juniper bonsai this lastt weekend. I didn't spray insecticide or feed it, just water. I gave it osmocot plant food pellets yesterday. I noticed a small spider yesterday that jumped out while watering. I water until i see the water drain out thrpugh holes. There was a small amount of rain this week. This morning the roots are showing and red. There is red and black on trunk. What can I do?

[Gnome]

Bonsai juniper,

Don't worry about the red coloration, it's normal. Your soil, while certainly not the worst we have seen, appears to have a large percentage of bark, a mix more appropriate for a deciduous tree. My Juniper is in a much leaner mix, meaning little or no bark.

Take care with your watering habits, don't keep it too soggy. They are cold tolerant and drought resistant but hate wet feet.

You don't say where you are located but if you are likely to receive a lot of rain it would be best to shelter it from most of it. The combination of frequent rain and a more water retentive medium, such as yours, is not ideal.

Use the chopstick method to determine when to water.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1479

[imafan26]

Read gnomes tips in the bonsai forum on how to check when you need to water. Try to keep your juniper outside most of the time. Bonsai and especially junipers are not house plants.

[Bonsai juniper]

So, its not dying? I live in Florida. It is always outside. What about bugs? I have malathion but I haven't used it yet. What soil mix would you recomend? The instructions they gave me said to water it daily.

[imafan26]

Water as needed. Depending on the time of year, humidity, wind, location, and media, the pot will dry out at different rates. Check the soil with a chopstick or your finger, if it is still moist, it can wait awhile longer.

Bonsai media is usually more like different sizes of gravel and does not usually contain a lot of water holding materials. With a dry mix and a bonsai outdoors, you can easily have to water it daily, but it will still depend on how fast it dries out.

Bonsai are deliberately stunted and will eventually become pot bound. they need to be fed, pruned and repotted regularly. Usually the pot is only large enough to accommodate the roots so there isn't that much media in it.

It is good you can keep it outside year round, it will be better off that way in full sun.

This might help with basic juniper care.

http://www.bonsaiempire.com/tree-species/juniper

[tomc]

I will gently disagree, bonsai are not stunted. They are well watered and fed (or should be). Root and branch pruning are done to keep tree in good ratio between root and top size. Everything else is styling.

A pulik and a poodle (dog) are when shaved about the same size and shape. Every other difference is styling.

[rainbowgardener]

ummm .... tom. Maybe we are using the terms in different ways, Depending on what kind of juniper it is, a creeping juniper in ground could easily be several meters wide, some juniper trees in nature are 10-15 meters tall. Compared to that, I think the little tree in the bonsai pot is stunted.

[Bonsai juniper]

Ok, thank you all for the help. I was just worried that It was dying. I will do the chopstick test and make sure I don't over water it.