Insect and Disease

[Chrisstina]

Hi Everyone,

My names Christina, I'm new to bonsais. My husband bought me 2 rosemary bonsais, 1 gardenia and 1 juniper for our anniversary. Ive attached two photos of the juniper, currently. I need help, I believe the juniper is not gonna survive. I had it for 7 months now, and it survived throughout the winter- indoors, beautifully! Due to the humid climate in my apartment building the climate was perfect with leaving the window open.

I began collecting more plants and I think, when I brought home a small lavender plant it brought with it bugs. My gardenia went first, I didn't notice the bugs till it was too late. I used neem oil and it slowly lost all its buds and leaves.

So I checked the juniper, its leaves looked as if they're turning white on the tips and the dirt around the trunk and root ball were very damp. So I moved the soil around and saw it was infested with appears to be little mites (white/ silver in color). I got insecticide that gets rid of almost all insects including fungus and mites. (The problem is; if the pant is sensitive to sulfur it can kill it). I wasn't sure and wanted the pests off the plant. So I sprayed it and left it for the day then repotted it because the roots were soaking wet. I trimmed the outside of the root ball, repotted it with new Bosnia soil mixture then watered it with the shower head in the tub.

Now the bark is beginning to look white at the bottom of the base and looks like its moving up the plant. And the root and soil is still really damp after two days from when I repotted and watered it. I don't know what to do, I really want to try to save this plant. I do not have an outside, but I do have a very large windowsill about 6 ft long and 3ft high where I keep all the plants. I did notice these pests attacked all my plants so I sprayed all of them. Please, if anyone can give advise on how to save this plant Id appreciate it, thank you.

Sincerely,
Christina

[rainbowgardener]

Hi Christina - Welcome to the Forum! Glad you found us. I think you didn't get a response to this because it is hard to deal with. There are a ton of different plants mentioned and different diseases, symptoms, treatments, and things that have happened to them. It is hard to sort out.

My suggestion so that we could be more helpful to you would be to break this up some. Post the part about the juniper as a separate thread in the bonsai section. I can tell you this much - it sounds like the soil is still holding too much moisture. You said you re-planted it in new Bosnia soil [presumably bonsai]. Tell us what this soil is like. The soil in your picture still looks dark and organic. Are the rocks in the picture glued on? if so they will need to be removed.