Stressed out Shimpaku; browning leaves

[dansai]

Well opinion seems divided. Either your tree is a goner, or it’s totally fine. Ild stop the misting, give it plenty of sun, keep watering it and let us know what happens.

[seephil]

I guess its a flip of the coin. As suggested, I will stop misting immediately and just leave it as it is.
I will continue the weekly seasol dunking ( minus the foliar misting) over the weekend and see how it progresses.

Thanks everyone for their inputs, i will keep posting fortnightly pics when i have the chance.

[Dean]

It's probably staying too wet.Fertilising and using pesticides is of little use and may harm the tree.Let it dry out between watering,you may need to use antirot (phosacid) for the roots.

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[Boics]

Last thing I want to say is that I believe Daluke and others are talking about what appears to be a disease with Junipers where they tend to weaken, lose branches and often trees over time. There are a number of threads discussing this, I know Bodhi is familiar with this issue too.

I'm not convinced by the pics that is what we are seeing here..

I looked at my juniper yesterday and it too is shedding old and unwanted needles and little branchlets right now as well.

Keep us posted cause this is good learning for all.

[Daluke]

It’s hard to diagnose a problem from photos - I’m no arborist or horticulture expert.

I’m hopeful that what you see isn’t the end of your tree. I’m just pointing out my experiences. Hopefully some more experienced growers chime in. It seems a few melbourne guys have had similar experiences.

[Pearcy001]

I went out and photographed mine today, seems to be quite similar. I initially actually thought it was because mine had dried out too much but who knows at this point. I have upped the water on mine and it seems to have stopped browning? Let me.know if you ever work out what has caused it. This is my first Shimpaku so I have nothing to compare it to sorry.

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[seephil]

I went out and photographed mine today, seems to be quite similar. I initially actually thought it was because mine had dried out too much but who knows at this point. I have upped the water on mine and it seems to have stopped browning? Let me.know if you ever work out what has caused it. This is my first Shimpaku so I have nothing to compare it to sorry.

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Does your needles get really dried out? when you run your fingers over the tree, do needles fall down, brown or green?

I feel that my tree has just gone super dy.

[Pearcy001]

Does your needles get really dried out? when you run your fingers over the tree, do needles fall down, brown or green?

I feel that my tree has just gone super dy.

Brown only, green stays healthy and intact. Since I first noticed it my watering has increased. Sorry to give you the conflicting info to others this is just what's going on with mine and could well be different to yours.

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[seephil]

Does your needles get really dried out? when you run your fingers over the tree, do needles fall down, brown or green?

I feel that my tree has just gone super dy.

Brown only, green stays healthy and intact. Since I first noticed it my watering has increased. Sorry to give you the conflicting info to others this is just what's going on with mine and could well be different to yours.

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LOL now worries Pearcy. I asked for advise and thank god for the good hearted people that replied. Only time will tell whether it'll survive or not...
Will update as the weeks go by.

[Boics]

Yours looks like natural attrition of older needles to me too Pearcy.

[treeman]

I don't think this is natural. Leaves exposed to the sun should never show discolouration like this. (unless they are burned of course) I believe something else is causing it. It could be dryness but I somehow doubt that too. Usually with dryness the leaves lose their shine and become dull looking and I think that the tips of the new growth go first not the foliage further back. I could be wrong. I would try to discover what is really going on if possible but it can be a bit of a mystery. If it's not dryness then there are really only two possibilities (maybe three) One is some kind of insect or mite attack. I don't think I have had mites before but you can check that with the sheet of white paper routine. I have had fat black aphids attack junipers. They are usually found a bit back from the new growth in spring were they are protected. They are very easy to spot with a close look. The second possibility is juniper tip die back or some other kind of fungal attack. The third - unlikely - possibility is some kind of nutrient issue or pH problem. Apparently shimpaku come from limestone mountains so the pH should be somewhere around neutral. I use dolomite on mine twice a year and they seem to get some benefit from it. I also spray a strong insecticide at least twice per year. I use malathion and folimat which have some mite activity as well as insect. They might be hard to get now. Soapy water works well for both too but is not long lasting. For the fungus you can use mancozeb which you can get from ebay. Use every spring at least once. The mancozeb plus from Bunnings contains sulphur which can burn some plants - be careful with it. It's very difficult to get products that actually work these days.

[Max]

since your re pot , over watering and not enough aeration in your mix, your tree will live