Hi All,

I am writing for assistance with my first bonsai--I believe it is a Chinese juniper. I am aware that junipers are meant to be kept outdoors and many of you will advocate against keeping it indoors at all. Unfortunately, having it outdoors permanently is not an option under the circumstances. That being the case, I am asking for help with keeping the tree alive under the circumstances available, wherein I can keep it outdoors about a third of the week. I purchased the three about three weeks ago after the shopkeeper responded affirmatively when I asked whether I would be able to keep it alive in my office if I rotated it outside every weekend. But my current regimen appears not to be working and the leaves are progressively yellowing.

Sun/Outdoors
This bonsai is in my office. I work in Palo Alto near San Francisco, where the outdoor temperatures are currently in the mid-70s and it never snows or gets too cold. Monday-Friday, I keep the bonsai in my office in front of a large but unopenable window (see picture). The window gets a good bit of indirect sunlight for most of the day and direct sunlight 1-2 hours at sunset (and I assume sunrise). Fridays at 5 p.m. I bring the tree outdoors to a patio area, where it remains in the sun until I bring it back inside on Mondays at around 10 a.m.

Water and Food
I am aware that junipers often die from overwatering and prefer to be a bit thirsty. Accordingly, I have been watering it every 2-3 days when the soil feels dry to the touch after I dig about a half inch below the surface with my hand. I also mist the tree 1-3 times a day during the week when it is indoors. The article I am linking to below indicates how a (Japanese) juniper can be kept alive fully indoors in San Francisco. As the article recommends, I purchased a humidity tray and will place the bonsai pot into the tray to help with humidity. I hope that will help with or solve the problem, but the tray has not yet arrived and the tree has been without that advantage thus far.

homeguides.sfgate.com/grow-japanese-juniper-inside-74905.html

I also fertilized the top of the soil with organic greenish yellow fertilizer ball that I pour water over.

The Problem
The tree was fully green during the first week or so that I had it indoors. Then I brought it outside for the weekend and noticed on Monday that some of the leaves were yellowing at their bases and some others had dried out and were easily falling off when plucked with my fingers. The soil was very dry when I brought it in, so I thought I had maybe erred too far on the side of underwatering and it dried out too much over the weekend when it was in the sun. I took it back inside for the week and believe that it got better or at least no worse during that week, but it's hard to notice change when looking at it every day. On Friday evening I took it out again and this time I thoroughly watered it to make sure that it had enough water while it was outside in the sun for the weekend. But today I brought it back inside and it is obvious that many more leaves are yellowing/drying out, some are kind of sagging to the side rather than standing perkily upright, and the small branch that had the first yellow leaves now appears to be mostly brown/dead.

I get the sense that rotating it outside is what is killing it--because it becomes much worse for wear over the weekend. But as I said before, I can't be sure. I have read that dramatic changes in environment can harm junipers, such as when they are brought from indoors into scorching sunlight instead of gradually into indirect/shady sunlight. But the environmental change when I bring it outside isn't dramatic--it's coming outside into a warm but not scorching hot and dry environment. Can this weekend change in environment be what is killing it? I have read that fully indoor junipers typically look fine for many weeks before they start dying, so the relatively rapid decline of my tree over two weeks with what I think are relatively good partially indoors conditions is surprising and concerning. I feel like at three weeks it wouldn't be yellowing this rapidly even if I had left it fully indoors?

Solutions?
What can I do to try to save my tree? I have the humidity tray coming and I hope that helps--it sounds like some people in my climate are able to keep junipers fully indoors with such trays. But what else can I do? Is my indoor/outdoor rotation strategy unsound? Keeping it fully outdoors is not an option, so should I try keeping it fully indoors with the humidity tray, as in the linked article? Should I double down on the rotation strategy and bring the tree outside every weeknight and bring it back inside every morning, a well as weekends? Should I prune away the dead/dying branch and the yellow leaves?

Any assistance is much appreciated. Thank you.

AleksandrM wrote:

I am aware that junipers are meant to be kept outdoors and many of you will advocate against keeping it indoors at all.

Welcome to this Forum, Aleksandr.
Unfortunately Junipers die if kept indoors.
All of them. Even the "indoor junipers" some garden centres sell to customers.

AleksandrM wrote:

The article I am linking to below indicates how a (Japanese) juniper can be kept alive fully indoors in San Francisco.

Thanks for the link, but...
No, even if one manages to keep it alive for one season, it will slowly get weak and weak, and finally die.

AleksandrM wrote:

I also fertilized the top of the soil with organic greenish yellow fertilizer ball that I pour water over.

You should not fertilize a sick tree, even being Osmocote (slow release fert)

AleksandrM wrote:

I brought it back inside and it is obvious that many more leaves are yellowing/drying out, some are kind of sagging to the side rather than standing perkily upright, and the small branch that had the first yellow leaves now appears to be mostly brown/dead.

Aleksandr, when juniper foliage is brown, it is because it's been dead for some time already. It is not immediate.

AleksandrM wrote:

I have read that fully indoor junipers typically look fine for many weeks before they start dying, so the relatively rapid decline of my tree over two weeks with what I think are relatively good partially indoors conditions is surprising and concerning. I feel like at three weeks it wouldn't be yellowing this rapidly even if I had left it fully indoors?

As I have said, then can look alive and green for weeks, even being already dead. And please, believe me, junipers have to be outside at all times.

AleksandrM wrote:

What can I do to try to save my tree? I have the humidity tray coming and I hope that helps--

It won't help.
Humidity trays are a bonsai myth, and they never create a "microclimate" as some suggest. They are helpful to avoid stains in the furniture though.

Put it outside. Even if it is in a friends house.
Water when the soil feels dry. In the summer, this can be twice a day.
Avoid the scorching sun, keep it in dappled shade.
Sometimes a humidity tent (not tray) helps on weak trees.
Don't fertilize, as said.
Your tree has scale and juvenile needles, which can be a sign of stress.

Take a look at the article below (if you didn't do it yet):
www.bonsaiempire.com/tree-species/juniper

I very much appreciate the information. Unfortunately, having it fully outdoors is not an option. If I can't have it in my office or apartment (balcony but no backyard) at all, then I simply wouldn't have it. Junipers can obviously live indoors for some periods of time, so there must be a point somewhere well short of 100% of the time where they are outdoor enough of the time to survive. If I had it outdoor six days a week, I imagine there would be no problem. So where is the threshold? Should I try having it outdoors 6 or 5 days out of the week first?

Additionally, you acknowledge that a juniper can live indoors for up to a season, but mine is already drying out after just a few weeks. So is there something else other than it being indoors at all that is harming the tree? Is it possible--as I suspect--that rotating the tree outside for two days on the weekend has been worse for the tree than not having it outdoors at all? Apart from adding more outdoor days weekly, is it possible that it would benefit from a modified approach, such as perhaps outdoors seven days straight and then indoors five days straight? Does anyone have experience with the nuances of alternating indoors/outdoors rather than simply keeping them permanently indoors or permanently outdoors?

Also, I placed the fertilizer balls immediately when I bought it, as advised by the nursery--not as treatment after-the-fact. Are you saying that I should remove the fertilizer balls now that it is distressed? The tree also had the combination of scale and needle leaves when I first purchased it (from a reputable bonsai-specializing nursery). I would therefore be surprised if it was already distressed at the time of purchase.

A reputable bonsai nursery will.not tell you a juniper can be kept indoors.

You already know what went wrong: regular change of climate and improper watering. Simply take the advice given. People here know what they are talking about. They will give you the facts, not that what you prefer to hear.

If youv cannot keep an outdoor tree outdoors, just do not try to keep it.

Cannot see it very well on my tablet but if this really a chinesevjuniper it is a veryy stressed one - and it was already stressed when you bought it.

I'm not positive it's a Chinese juniper. I just know it's a juniper and I saw that Chinese junipers have a combination of scale and needle leaves that look very much like my tree's leaves. The tree is obviously very stressed now, but I'm not sure how you can conclude that it was very stressed when I bought it without having seen what it looked like then. The reputable bonsai nursery (www.yelp.com/biz/katsura-garden-san-francisco) did not tell me a juniper can be kept indoors; they told me it cannot be kept indoors, and then I asked whether it can be kept partially indoors with me rotating it outside on weekends. They responded that may be enough.

While I appreciate any and all information, I already know that a juniper bonsai cannot be kept fully indoors and I do not need help with that easy answer. I am particularly interested in someone with experience helping me with the harder answers to the more interesting questions: how, through rotation and proper (perhaps different than the usual) care, to have a partially indoor juniper bonsai? It can obviously be done with some combination of care and outdoor time--surely you are not suggesting that a juniper is guaranteed to die if it is kept indoors 1% of the time? 10% of the time? One week out of the month? My questions are about the particulars of how to accomplish this untraditional task, which is not the same thing as "I want to keep it juniper permanently inside of my basement--why is it dying?"

I am currently planning to get it temporarily fully outdoors to nurse it back to health, and then experiment with having it indoors for longer and longer stretches of time--perhaps even training it to gradually accept longer stretches of indoor environment, if that is a phenomenon that exists. I can do these experiments on my own, but I am hoping that experienced people here can provide information that would accelerate the learning curve.

I also don't already know that I improperly watered it. I initially thought I improperly watered it, but am now considering multiple other possibilities. I believe I watered it in accordance with the instructions on this site. Did something in my description indicate an error in watering? If so, please let me know what the error was so I can correct it.

General advice with nursing it back to health as I have it temporarily fully outdoors is also welcome. Should I be pruning the yellow leaves/branches? I know junipers don't like blades, so should I pluck off with my fingers? Or just leave everything in place?

If the needles are yellow or worse then yes they must be cut off. Improper watering or erratic watering will cause many problems, There is no point in temporarily having it outside it must be there permanently, because as soon as it is put inside again it will start to deteriorate and get weaker. That is if it recovers.

AleksandrM wrote:

I'm not positive it's a Chinese juniper. I just know it's a juniper and I saw that Chinese junipers have a combination of scale and needle leaves that look very much like my tree's leaves

They don't. They have scale type foliage. They develop juvenile / needle type foliage when stressed.

I'm not sure how you can conclude that it was very stressed

It has lots of juvenile foliage. That did not just develop recently.

The reputable bonsai nursery (www.yelp.com/biz/katsura-garden-san-francisco)

Doesn't have a website? I can only find Katsura Gardens in Plymouth - which is not a bonsai nursery.

I already know that a juniper bonsai cannot be kept fully indoors

A juniper bonsai cannot be kept indoors. Period.

OK, one exception: a juniper bonsai can be kept indoors for a few days, if you want to display it when it's ready to be displayed.

surely you are not suggesting that a juniper is guaranteed to die if it is kept indoors 1% of the time? 10% of the time?

That is not what you are asking for.

experiment with having it indoors for longer and longer stretches of time

It will die.

My last reply in this thread as you insist you want to grow your tree indoors and only want to hear confirmation it is possible. Junipers belong outdoors, they will not do well indoors. If you want to grow bonsai you need your trees to be as vigorous as possible. Junipers will live indoors for a while, but they will not thrive. You cannot grow juniper bonsai indoors.

Hi AlexanderM and welcome

As 2 experienced guys told you here - there is no way around it.
It is hard to keep even a ficus alive and well indoors for a long time, it does need to be outside in summer too.

Your juniper might have been sick already when you bought it and your situation isn´t helping it.
Moving tree indoors and outdoors again and again is a thing that can kill your tree alone.

If you got a super healthy juniper, I believe you might bring it inside once in a while to enjoy looking at it, but I wouldn´t keep it there longer than 1 - 2 days.
Trees are displayed at exhibitions for a few days often in not very nice air and light conditions.
But those are healthy trees managed by professionals.

If you like looking at a bonsai in your office - I recommend a wallpaper on your computer or a wall above it.

Here is a similar example: think about iguanas. an iguana is a lizard which lives in hot portions of the world. Taking an iguana to Alaska and trying to keep the it outside in the winter will kill it. Or taking a snow owl to the sahara desert will kill it... the main reason is that the kind of food these animals require is not present in those environments... obviously temperature is another... among many other reasons.
Trees generate their food through their leaves. The type of leaf(needle) is suited to generate the proper amount of food under the proper conditions...These conditions do not only include light... but humidity, air movement etc... trees also give off the waste products of generating food through their leaves as well as loose excess water etc... moving a tree regularly or even semi-regularly puts stress on the tree. even moving it from less than favorable to better conditions may cause it to lose leaves, as the leaves it generated in less sun are not used to full sun. Trees do not move, if the place they are in is not favorable to them, they die. plain and simple.

a juniper requires full sun, outdoor moisture, seasons and a most of all like almost all trees to be kept in one place that gives it these conditions 99.9% of the time.