Juniperus Virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar) #2

[hinmo24t]

"Like many rusts caused by species of Gymnosporangium, rosaceous trees and Juniperus species are required for the fungus to complete its life cycle. The fungus primarily infects apple/crabapple (Malus), eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) and Rocky Mountain juniper (J. scopulorum). However, several other Juniperus species are also susceptible to infection, such as J. chinensis, J. horizontalis and J. communis. The disease also occurs rarely on hawthorn (Crataegus)."

From here; https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/fact-sheets/cedar-apple-rust.

I lost two Chinese Junipers to it, the rose family has a lot of relatives. I phoned Monterey several years ago and was told to spray Fall and spring which I do, NOT just spring as I said previously. I cannot remember 100% but I think the woman said to do a weak root drench.

good to know...i might have to do that in the future. i meant hawthorn not hornbeam before. as long as my white cedars dont get it ill be happy, and i was reassured they prob wont.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I keep an eye for spots on my crabapple leaves and remove ones which show signs of rust. Same for the junipers. After that, I use a systemic on the tree. Not as a prevatitive. Im experimenting on another tree of mine with a strategy for dealing with infected leaves on the juniper.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Status. Looking good. Wired the bottom branches since I know which ones I want to focus growth on and did a little cleanup today. Will leave it now till about february when ill remove the new wire. Will need a repot next year as well. Thinking of incorporating some home made compost next year to help hold water and may experiment with this tree in that regard.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Nice little one, totally looks like a Stricta juniper!! I need to collect some ERC berrys and start my ERCs from seed!!

 

[Orion_metalhead]

The branches seem to throw back buds as long as they havent begun creating the flaky peeling bark.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Brought it in for a look over tonight.. im making permanent tags for the trees which I'm happy with and have been alive for more than a couple years.

 

[hinmo24t]

Nice

These are the berries? @arnold

 

[Orion_metalhead]

These are everywhere around here... i doubt you need to grow em from seed.

 

[hinmo24t]

These are everywhere around here... i doubt you need to grow em from seed.

Ive learned that people in this game often enjoy growing them from seed even when theyre readily elsewhere

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I totally understand that sentiment - most of my trees have been grown from seed. I enjoy the process greatly. Its not bad to have another tree that is larger to experiment refinement techniques on.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Repotted this today. Overall quite happy with it's development. I think it's a nice start. Hoping to keep it this size and just keep refining it at this point. These ERCs grow roots like crazy!



Close up of base before raking out the roots.


Tons of roots!


Pruned down a bit. The front of the best nebari matches my intended tree front, which I'm very happy about!




Repotted (Properly this time). Wired the tree down. I think I got more roots growing under the mesh screen and pushing it up last year because I didn't wire the mesh down or the tree. Hopefully I can get better root growth at the surface this year. I'm going to try doing a better job of keeping the top of the soil moist this year.


Some corrective areas for this year... First, I want to pull this second branch closer to the trunk, so it is not longer than the bottom branch...


second, the apex needs to get cleaned up and thinned out. The tree is apically dominant, so as soon as I see buds moving, I'll be doing some shoot selection up here. I may be choosing a new leader.


Third, when this branch get's rewired, I want to get it flatter... as it is a bit.. poofy right now.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

@Oleg you had mentioned you spray in spring for rusts and fall as well, what spray do use? This tree has had two small bits of rust on it, which I was able to cut off, but I want to try spraying these two junipers starting in the fall. Since you've not had issues with the rust on your trees, I'd like to try your method.

 

[Oleg]

Nice tree, they're strong and they grow like weeds. I use "Monterey Fungi Fighter" the active ingredient is "propiconazole". I cannot find it available online today meaning it's been banned, here anyway. It's locally systemic (I don't even know if that's a thing) by that I mean it absorbs into the plant and last about a month. It has become my go to for rust, Horse-Chestnut Leaf Blotch (Guignardia aesculi), and powdery mildew, with the two latter it's sprayed on newly emerging leaves and if done once a month or with each new flush, protects them mostly, problems later in the season was probably me being flakey. CA Rust is cyclical between Junipers, and plants of the Rosaceae family, from what I understand infection takes place in fall (possibly also in spring) and shows it's self in spring, wet springtime weather causes the galls to bloat which indicates the extent of the infection. There's more info on it in the link provided on the previous page. It cannot be cured but infection is local, cut off galls and your good until re-infected but from what I understand ERC are magnets, very susceptible, my San Joses (in among the affected at the time) on the other hand have never had it, luck or Fungi Fighter I don't know.
I think if you have had it this year, you're ok until the fall. It's in the cold wet weather that I see it, this is rightly or wrongly when I spray. It must be sprayed before infection.
Good luck!

 

[Oleg]

I have just heard back from treehelp.com re. where's Fungi Fighter? Off the market, they cannot source the ingredients, temporary? possibly. In any case you have far more choice in the states than here. Systemic is a must because you are not there when infection occurs.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I was able to find it. So Im going to buy a bottle and give it a try.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

End of year. Kind of didnt do great. Noticed soil lacked drainage. Will repot in spring again into better draining soil and do a better job fertilizing. Not too worried about it surviving though. Really want to see it get strong because I want to thin it out pretty drastically.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Repotted again to solve drainage issue. Roots were just starting to grow. Needs a strong year of growth. Will fertilize more strictly this year.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Rust issues again... sigh.

Deciding what to do with the two ERC. I may keep this one and dump the other which has little interest or character.

 

[BrightsideB]

I threw out two I had like a football into the backyard tree’s today. They had the rust. Realized they were going to take to much time and hope.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Didnt touch much this year. Watered and fertilized to get the tree recovered from the two-year in a row root prune/repot. The tree has started to convert to scale foliage which is nice. Need to fertilize heavily, prune, wire next year. Apex needs to get chopped off and a new leader chosen.