There are it seems alot of people on here who have juniper as their first Bonsai. First and foremost juniper is an outdoor tree, unless you intend on spending lots of money and extrenous amounts of time to care for it indoors.

Outdoors only, indoors for no longer than two days for display purposes. I have had my Juniper now for several months and I want everyone to realize that any Bonsai purchased or potensai "hate this word" require a long term commitment.

My observations that I will be posting hopefully will serve to educate others on the Junipers growth,and additional conditions. All Bonsai have potential for infestation the easiest way to take care of this is basically innoculating your trees on a regular basis. How regular if you currently have an infestation follow the recommended dose on you bug killer for lack of a better word. Get bug killer that is recomended for trees, plants or any other such botanical. Read all directions carefully and start with your infestation regimen immediatley.

Now unless you have a current infestation I would say that preventative measures with bug killer about every 3 weeks to a month should keep your tree free from pests. Alright now I will get more in depth with my specific observations of Juniper.

Don't be over zealous with thinking your tree is dying. The darkened part around your trunk is probably just young wood exposed from the soil it has not yet fully matured and you will probably notice root growth from this region. The area nearest the base of the tree at the top of the soil is the area in which I am referring to. In this area on my tree I have some small but healthy rootage growing.

The Juniper as a Bonsai is recommended for beginners and I would agree with this notion. I agree with that on a whole because juniper will teach you to be and observer of nature and will teach you the basics of Bonsai horticulture without to many errors.

I want to discuss now foliar growth and "browning" Its seems that some new people may be mistaking the browning on the branch stucture as dying juniper. While not impossible this is improbable with careful observation and a set of tweezers you can remove these browning needles along the brach line what you will notice under those needles is a duplicated scale like growth which will harden and become a part of your trees branch structure.

With your tweezers I only recommend removing the brown foliar needles not the entire scale you can do this by gently pulling the needle in a backward to the scale direction this needle will then be pulled gently in a reverse forward motion this should remove that needle. Do not force it, finess is a gentle and kind way of handling this process, Juniper tend to be relatively forgiving in this manner. If indeed you do remove the whole scale plus the needle you will see green scale like bark which will later turn the shade of the bark. Do not do this in mass reductions or you may likley lose the branch or the entire tree.

Humidity is good Juniper seems to love humidity and it seems to aid very well in all areas of growth a humidity tray or twice daily misting seem to do this very well for the tree. I mist, I then have more control over how the tree recieves this moisture, as well misting will provide foliar areas with a good means to keep from drying out. Do not mist during the heat of the day with direct sun on the tree. This may cause foliar damage and browning as the tiny water droplets would magnify the sun and possibly scorch the trees foilage. If you do mist during the heat of the day I would recommend doing direct sun only about once a month that way it may help to toughen the tree up "MAY" being the key word and I would take into account the health of your tree before attempting this.

Watering Juniper about every three days seems to do ok as long as the soil that it has provided for it has good drainage. My current mix for soil is 70% coarse akadama and 30% peat and organic mix. Still continuing the tooth pick method seems to be the most beneficial. Other general juniper care direct sun for about 4-6 hours max is where I currently have my tree situated it is also not recommended to have juniper in a higly winded area as this has a tendancy of drying the tree out.

I will post more and continue with this at another time but for the moment I'm running out of dicussion topics and I will arrive at this again with a clear head and new thoughts for the furthering of this discussion.