Sun burned juniper ??

[crisz]

Hi neighbours ,,


Can someone help me to have a look what happened with my juniper ? The foliage now is dry and spiky, the tips seems like white+brown, some of them might also fall even if i do a gentle scrub.
The place I put it has over 7-8 hours direct sunlight daily. At the beginning of this symptom, i though it was a bit over watering, but now it seems getting worse, I suspect it was due to too much sun shine and it gets sun burnt ? Does someone have a different opinion, if it is sunburn, what should i do next ?

I also did a scratch test on the trunk, and it's full green.

Thanks

 

[Shibui]

The trouble with symptoms is they are often similar for different causes. For instance, overwatering causes root damage so the tree can't take in water so it dies of dehydration, even though the soil is wet. Lack of water also cases dehydration directly so the tree will look almost the same as root rot.

Overwatering takes weeks or months to affect a tree but by the time you notice anything it's often too late for the tree to recover. Even if you reduce watering it takes weeks for new roots to grow and before that can happen the tree is still dying of thirst.
In my experience, underwatering is much more common in our dry climate and with modern soilless potting mix - unless the pot has been sitting in a tray of water.

The bark will still be green for a few weeks after the tree has died. Bark scratch test is not reliable and probably does more harm than good. Conifers are notorious for being dead well before they show symptoms nut, just in case, continue to care for it as if there's still hope. I've seen trees make miraculous recoveries when they looked terminal.

 

[crisz]

The trouble with symptoms is they are often similar for different causes. For instance, overwatering causes root damage so the tree can't take in water so it dies of dehydration, even though the soil is wet. Lack of water also cases dehydration directly so the tree will look almost the same as root rot.

Overwatering takes weeks or months to affect a tree but by the time you notice anything it's often too late for the tree to recover. Even if you reduce watering it takes weeks for new roots to grow and before that can happen the tree is still dying of thirst.
In my experience, underwatering is much more common in our dry climate and with modern soilless potting mix - unless the pot has been sitting in a tray of water.

The bark will still be green for a few weeks after the tree has died. Bark scratch test is not reliable and probably does more harm than good. Conifers are notorious for being dead well before they show symptoms nut, just in case, continue to care for it as if there's still hope. I've seen trees make miraculous recoveries when they looked terminal.

Thanks Shibui for your explanation, yes you are right, I'm using potting mix + perlite. So you reckon it's a bit of underwatering? Do I need to change the place to where has less direct sun exposure ?

 

[Shibui]

So you reckon it's a bit of underwatering? Do I need to change the place to where has less direct sun exposure ?

What I said was it is not possible for me to tell from the photo. I can just make a calculated guess from previous experience which could be way off, especially when you brought up overwatering as a possibility.

How much sun depends on many factors. Plenty of sun is good for compact growth but will obviously dry the tree out. If you can't manage watering to suit the sun exposure it obviously requires less sun. It's a steep learning curve finding out how to manage watering, learning to water effectively and how often to suit the pot, potting mix, species and your own unique environmental factors. You certainly are not the first and won't be the last to lose a tree through that initial learning about bonsai phase.

Good luck, I hope it's not too dead yet.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Looks dried out.