On 17 Jan 2005 at 20:26, Colin Horn wrote:

I keep the juniper outside on my porch. Ive never had problems with insects
before except for scale last year, but nothing serious. The tree gets sun in
the daytime, and I keep it watered, but I try to lean towards the dry side
since its a juniper. I know that overwatering definitely was not the
problem, and I seriously doubt that underwatering would be a problem. I've
had it for 1 year, ive been training it the whole time and its been healthy
ever since. With the two pathces of foilage that have turned brown, these
patches are amongst other patches coming form diferent sources, but none of
the other patches have changed- still green and healthy. The damaged patches
have turned a light medium brown, but i can see with a couple "needles" on
these pathes that the tips on some are gren, while close to their branch is
brown. They are still soft to the touch, not dry or crusty. If beetles dont
do this kind of damage, what can do it in such a fast span of time? I dont
think any changes in environment could do something like this in a matter of
2 days. Im open for any sugestions. Thanks again,- Colin Horn, SF Bay Area,
CA



Well, my best guess would be aphids, scale, or spider mites.
Use that hand lens and examine the tree closely. Spider mites
are tiny and (often) reddish. Aphids are bigger and reddish,
white/clear or black and soft looking. Scale looks like white
or gray lumps on the limbs.

A hard spray of water into the branches (repeated every day for
a few days) will get rid of either of the first two. At this
time of year, a dormant oil spray will get rid of any of these
critters.

It's really impossible to diagnose from 3000 miles and sight
unseen, though.

Good luck.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Bonsaiests
are like genealogists: We know our roots!

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++